Provider: University of Albany

Program Description: Because emergencies impact both human and animal populations, it is important to include plans for animals in preparedness activities to ensure their safety before, during and after an emergency. This program (developed in partnership with David Chico, VMD, Veterinarian - New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets) will focus on why it is important and how we can best prepare, plan and respond to disasters affecting animals (e.g, County Animal Response Teams and sheltering).

Presenter: Kelly Nilsson, former Director of Disaster Response Services for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

Time to complete: 1.25 hours

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation, the participants will be able to:

• Describe the relationship between animal needs and human health and safety during emergencies
• Understand the legal requirements set forth in the state and Federal P.E.T.S. Act
• Understand the need for personal preparedness
• Recognize the need to collaborate with community partners in preparing for disasters effecting animals
• Understand community preparedness initiatives

Target Audience: National audience of state and local public health professionals and such partners as healthcare professionals, EMS personnel, law enforcement, and media representatives

Access at Dealing With Animals in Emergencies

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Provider: FEMA

Course Overview: This course is intended to help animal owners, care providers, and industries to understand incident management.

Course Objectives: To increase awareness and preparedness among animal owners and care providers, and to describe how typical hazards affect animals and what can be done by responsible owners to reduce the impact of disasters.

Course Length: 3.5 hours

Target Audience: Animal owners and care providers

Access at IS-10.A: Animals in Disaster: Awareness and Preparedness

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Provider: FEMA

Course Overview: This course provides information for groups to meet and develop meaningful and effective plans that improve the care of animals, their owners, and the animal-care industries in disasters.

Course Objectives:

At the completion of this training, the learner will be able to:

• learn how to develop a community plan for managing animals in an emergency,
• identify hazards and threats most likely to affect your community and ways to minimize their impact on animals,
• indicate how communities use the Incident Command System (ICS) to respond effectively to an incident involving animals,
• describe resources available to help communities recover from a disaster, and
• develop community support for a disaster preparedness plan involving animals.

Course Length: 4.5 hours

Target Audience: Emergency management officials, animal owners, animal-care providers, and animal-care industries

Access at IS-11.A: Animals in Disaster: Community Planning

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Provider: FEMA

Course Overview: This course combines the knowledge of livestock producers and emergency managers to present a unified approach to mitigate the impact of disasters on animal agriculture.

Course Objectives:

At the completion of this training, the learner will be able to:

• understand issues that arise when disasters affect livestock,
• determine a farm's susceptibility to hazards, and
• identify actions to reduce economic losses and human and animal suffering in disasters.

Course Length: 3.5 hours

Target Audience: Emergency management officials and livestock owners

Access at IS-111.A: Livestock in Disasters

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Provider: Louisiana State University

Description: The information in this manual addresses the planning, operational, and closing phases of an emergency animal shelter based on the experiences of the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Emergency Animal Shelter at the LSU AgCenter’s Parker Coliseum that was established following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Access at LSU Emergency Animal Shelter Disaster Response Manual

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Provider: Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Center

Course Description: This course tells the story of one community’s efforts to collaborate on improvements to its emergency shelter plans. You are invited to participate in these efforts, working with the county's Emergency Manager and other stakeholders to update plans last revised five years ago. As the story unfolds, you encounter questions asking you to identify relevant facts or to select the best course of action for making improvements to the planning process and its outcomes. Need help answering a question? Click on Help to see excerpts from publications included in the FNSS Resource Toolkit that comes with this training.

Time to complete: 1 hour

Learning objectives:

After participating in this scenario, learners should be able to:

• Identify FNSS-related gaps in shelter plans.
• Relate demographic information to a community’s FNSS-related needs.
• Adopt strategies for providing FNSS in mass-care settings.
• Partner with FNSS providers by means of MOUs and other types of agreements.
• Engage people with FNSS-related needs in shelter planning.

Target audience: Emergency managers, shelter planners, and other mid-level public health professionals responsible for community preparedness

Access at A Shelter Story: Integrating Functional Needs Support Services (FNSS) into Emergency Shelter Plans

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Course Description: Recent events have shown the need to reach everyone in the community, including those outside of the "mainstream". Must define these groups, locate them and ascertain how best to communicate with them. Some regions have done more on this than others. In wide-spread emergencies public health efforts must be inclusive. The goal is to make sure every member of the community understands the information needed to prepare, cope and recover from health emergencies.

There are five main sections in this course:

1. Risk Communication and Special Populations
2. General Strategies
3. Specific Strategies
4. Scenarios
5. Knowledge Bank

Time to complete: 1.5 hours

Learning Objectives:

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe four general strategies to effectively communicate risk to special populations
• Describe methods to identify and map special population groups and explain why it is important
• Utilize community leaders to assist in communicating risk to special populations
• Conduct pre-emergency planning to facilitate communicating risk to special populations
• Describe guidelines for media accessibility
• Utilize the following information about each of nine special population groups to avoid and/or solve communication problems during an emergency
  • Potential communication barriers
  • Best methods to deliver the message
  • Person(s) best suited to deliver the message
  • Any special technical or content issues to consider when delivering the message

Target Audience: This specialized course is intended for anyone responsible for communicating risk to special populations during an emergency situation. Prerequisite course for a basic understanding of risk communication: Don't Panic! Principles of Crisis and Risk Communication Scenario

Access at  Risk Communication for Special Populations

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Provider: EPlan, LLC

Description: A planning tool that contains helpful appendixes such as a Triage Help Tool, Pre-Registration Tool, Flowchart of Authority, Flow of Residents, and Shelter Registration Form

Access at Shelter & Mass Care: Fictitious County Emergency Operations Plan

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Provider: California Department of Social Services (CDSS)

Course Description: This online document details the four primary elements in planning for care and shelter operations:

1. Designating a care and shelter coordinator and ensuring a mutual understanding with the local Red Cross on the dual partnership required for care and shelter operations.
2. Identifying those facilities to be used as disaster shelters and gathering the appropriate survey information and agreements.
3. Training the staff necessary to run the above facilities.
4. Ensuring access to the resources and services necessary to support disaster victims both at shelters and within the community. This includes a strategy for meeting special needs and a linkage with local CBOs that support vulnerable persons.

Access at Care and Shelter Planning Template (PDF Format)

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Provider: American Red Cross (ARC)

Description: Used in conjunction with ARC’s Shelter Operations course, this workbook serves two purposes. It is designed as a field resource for workers, and it provides materials for use in training. The front of the workbook presents helpful information and specific shelter procedures that will guide you through the shelter process. The back of the workbook will lead you through the Shelter Operations course. It provides places for you to take notes and jot down questions. We encourage you to customize these materials, so that they become a valuable resource when you work in a shelter. When you receive this workbook during the Shelter Operations course, your instructor will refer to this material throughout the course. You will find some additional information in the workbook beyond what is covered in class. This material is still critical for running a successful shelter. Please be sure to read it after class.

Target audience:  Shelter workers

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Provider: American Red Cross

Description: The purpose of this Toolkit is to provide shelter managers with the resources to plan for, open, operate and close shelters. This kit should be considered the management companion to the Shelter Operations Participant’s Workbook (ARC 3068-11). The toolkit covers opening a shelter, managing a shelter, unique sheltering situations, shelter safety issues, essential tools and resources, and position descriptions for shelter workers.

Target audience:  Shelter managers

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Provider: American Red Cross / Disaster Resistant Communities Group LLC

Course Purpose: This course provides disaster health services response content specific to Red Cross sheltering through a two-part course. Although the course is designed for nursing students, it can also be used to orient Red Cross partners (e.g., Medical Reserve Corps or public health nurses) to shelter operations in the communities where they are located. Specifically, Red Cross Disaster Health and Sheltering acquaints pre-licensure nursing students with volunteering on disaster relief operations, especially in the shelter environment.

Course Description: Disaster Health and Sheltering is an introductory two-part awareness course. Part I is an online Independent Study and Part II is an Interactive Classroom Tabletop Exercise. The course orients pre-licensure nursing students to the roles and responsibilities of a Disaster Health Services (HS) volunteer. Nursing students may work under the supervision of a Red Cross Registered Nurse to meet the disaster-related health needs of clients as a HS Student Caregiver registered as a Red Cross volunteer in the Disaster Services Human Resources (DSHR) system (local response only).

Part I provides an overview of Disaster HS using a historical video and narrated presentation. Part II encourages in-class interaction, using a tabletop exercise with scenario injects. A Red Cross nurse from the local chapter participates in the in-class Part II, helping participants work through case studies based on actual mass care experiences.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this course, nursing students will be able to:

1. Describe the role of the Red Cross Disaster Health Services (HS) volunteer in the disaster shelter setting.
2. Identify HS commitments as a Red Cross HS worker.
3. Describe HS disaster relief settings where volunteers may be assigned.
4. Assess disaster client needs, providing appropriate nursing care and client referral.
5. Describe possible challenges of working with the community after a disaster incident, to include strategies for providing assistance to individuals with functional and access needs.
6. Explain how HS align with public health nursing practice.

Prerequisites: Enrollment in a nursing program with: 1) a nursing faculty member who is willing to facilitate course instruction and 2) a collaborative relationship with a Red Cross nurse and local chapter or center.

Time to complete: 4 hours (2 hours on line and 2 hours in the classroom)

Target Audience: Pre-licensure nursing students and Red Cross partners who desire familiarization with Red Cross disaster health services

Access at Disaster Health and Sheltering Course

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Provider: CDC

Description: This web page displays links to various shelter management topics (infection control after a disaster, medical management and patient advisement after a disaster, glucose monitoring at evaluation centers, dialysis care after a disaster, and disaster information for pet centers).

Access at Information for Disaster Evacuation Centers

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Provider: CDC

Description: This web page addresses key topics for environmental health practitioners who perform many critical functions in shelters. Examples include conducting shelter assessments, testing drinking water supplies, conducting food safety inspections, and evaluating general safety and sanitation. Key topics include:

• CDC Shelter Assessment Tool – This environmental health shelter assessment tool assists environmental health practitioners in conducting a rapid assessment of shelter conditions during emergencies and disasters
• Chemical Agents: Facts About Sheltering in Place – precautions about sheltering in place after a chemical incident
• Disaster Information for Pet Shelters – guidelines for animal health & control of disease transmission in pet shelters and other information about pet shelters
• Infection Control Guidance for Community Evacuation Centers Following Disasters – recommendations for basic infection control guidance to prevent exposure to or transmission of infectious diseases in temporary community evacuation centers
• Learn How to Shelter in Place – information about how to know when to shelter-in-place
• Sheltering in Place During a Radiation Emergency – precautions to help reduce exposure to radiation

Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response – training addresses information on shelters and many environmental health topics commonly faced in response to emergency events

Public Health Surveillance During a Disaster – information to assess the human health impacts of a disaster and evaluate potential problems such as disease outbreaks

Target audience:  Environmental health practitioners

Access at Shelters (Evacuation and Emergency)

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Provider: South Central Public Health Partnership (Tulane University and University of Alabama at Birmingham)

Course Description: The lectures in this course focus on teaching environmental health specialists how they can apply their knowledge of everyday environmental health problems to dealing with environmental health issues that arise in the creation of mass shelters that may follow a major disaster. The lectures provide the learner with an introductory overview of the course topic and offers general knowledge of the subject matter.

Course Objectives: By the end of this course, the student should be able to describe key environmental health issues and the roles of environmental health professionals in shelter operations.

Time Requirement: 1 to 3 hours

Target Audience: Environmental health professionals

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Institution: FEMA

Description: This self-paced, online course provides procedures and tools for building and working with voluntary organizations. Topics include:

• Benefits and challenges of using volunteers
• Building a volunteer program
• Writing job descriptions
• Developing volunteers through recruitment, placement, training, supervision and evaluation
• Coordinating with voluntary agencies and community-based organizations
• Special issues including spontaneous volunteers, liability, and stress

Target Audience: Emergency managers and related professionals

Time Requirement: 4 hours

Access at Developing and Managing Volunteers

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Provider: Iowa Department of Public Health, Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center

Description: This self-paced, online course includes information on how to handle spontaneous volunteers, the use of volunteer agencies, the Medical Reserve Corp, and DMATs, the process of recruiting, screening, and training volunteers, volunteer retention, and licensure and privileging and liability issues.  

Learning Objectives:

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

• List activities that can potentially utilize public health volunteers in both emergency and non-emergency situations.  
• List how volunteers can potentially be used in each of the 4 phases of an emergency management cycle of a public health emergency.
• Describe the difference between affiliated volunteers, non-affiliated volunteers and spontaneous volunteers.
• Describe the challenge of spontaneous volunteers and strategies for dealing with them.  
• Describe how the issues of licensure and privileging may impact volunteers and their use.
• Describe the Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals and its advantages.
• Describe liability laws protecting volunteers in Iowa.
• Explain how to minimize risk of liability when using volunteers.
• Describe resources that can provide volunteers in a public health emergency (VOLAGs, Medical Reserve Corps, DMATs)  
• Communicate effectively with public and professional community to provide information about volunteer opportunities, both before and during an emergency.
• Maximize volunteer retention, throughout all phases of an emergency management cycle, and in terms of availability for future events.
• Perform necessary administrative tasks when preparing to deploy volunteers in a public health emergency (i.e., training, orientation, matching volunteers to tasks).
• Recognize possible adverse effects of working in disaster areas on mental health; take steps to minimize volunteers' risk of developing these problems.
• Describe strategies to maximize volunteer retention.

Target Audience: Public health agencies in Iowa who may need to use volunteers in both emergency and non-emergency situations

Time Requirement: 1.75 hours

Access at Volunteer Management for Public Health

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Provider: FEMA

Course Description: This course has been designed to help the citizens of this nation learn how to protect themselves and their families against all types of hazards. It can be used as a reference source or as a step-by-step manual. The focus of the content is on how to develop, practice, and maintain emergency plans that reflect what must be done before, during, and after a disaster to protect people and their property. Also included is information on how to assemble a disaster supplies kit that contains the food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity for individuals and their families to survive.

Time to complete: 10 hours

Target audience: Everyone

How to access:  IS-22: Are You Ready? An In-Depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness

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Provider: Upper Midwest Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center

Course Description: This course provides general emergency preparedness training for families, focusing on protective actions your family can take prior to a disaster. The course is set up as an interactive scenario. Users direct themselves through a scenario by answering various questions. A “More Info” button is available to provide help with answering a given question.

Time to complete: 1 hour

Learning objectives:

After completion of the course, learners should be able to:

• recognize the need for family preparedness planning.
• assemble all-hazard emergency supply kits.
• create all-hazard emergency plans.
• demonstrate appropriate responses to known or potential disasters and emergencies in the Upper Midwest.
• identify resources for emergency preparedness planning and apply lessons learned.

Target audience: General public

How to access:  Prepare Your Family: A General Preparedness Scenario

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Provider: New York Academy of Medicine’s Redefining Readiness

Course Description: To enable people and organizations around the country to strengthen their shelter-in-place preparedness efforts, the SGD findings have been used to create sets of specific issues for households, work places, schools and early childhood/youth programs, and governments to consider. Available in English and Spanish, these issue sets are designed to make people in each group aware of important issues that are within their purview to address and to stimulate their thinking about contextually appropriate solutions.
 
Access at Preparing to Shelter in Place - Practical Tools for Households, Work Places, Schools and Early Childhood/Youth Programs, and Governments

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