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Every few months I try to highlight the Public Health Practices project (formerly Promising Practices), a freely accessible repository of public health tools and strategies, sponsored by CIDRAP at the University of Minnesota, in partnership with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).
I’ve been remiss in not mentioning them since late last year, especially since they are currently seeking feedback from visitors on how they are doing.
After you’ve explored their site, there is a short survey they would appreciate your answering.
Over the past year Public Health Practices has broadened its original scope to include more than just pandemic response. You’ll find tools and practices that cover a wide range of public health concerns, including chemical, radiological, and natural disasters.
In addition to the constantly expanding website, there is also a monthly email newsletter you can sign up for.
The About Us page provides an overview of the mission of the Public Health Practices website:
Features of Public Health Practices include:
- More than 300 public health practices in 9 categories of emergency preparedness and disaster response from state and local health agencies, community-based organizations, and colleges and universities.
- In-depth stories on how state and local projects were created, communications materials in more than 40 languages, and tools like job action sheets and media campaigns.
- Expert reviewers' commentary on a practice's effectiveness, reach, sustainability, feasibility, and transferability. Please note: expert review is only available for a select number of practices.
- A regular e-newsletter featuring our newest practices and other updates from the CIDRAP Public Health Practices staff.
- The ability to search for practices based on geography, available languages, and key topics in preparedness and response.
If you are interested in starting a community public health, preparedness, or response program - or one for a college or university - a visit to this website could save you and your organization or agency a lot of time, money, and aggravation.
Some recent additions to the site include:
Recent Practices
Curriculum trains children to act as disaster preparedness ambassadors to their families
Guidance helps integrate concerns about sexual violence into the roles and procedures of disaster responders
Parochial Armenian schools develop and implement an earthquake preparedness program
Framework provides strategies for addressing resource scarcity in hospitals and clinics during a regional response
Toolkit paves the way for hospitals to meet children's needs during a disaster
Partnership with Civil Air Patrol allows winter transport of emergency medications to Michigan's Upper Peninsula
Whether you are looking for a specific solution, or simply looking for muse to inspire your organization’s emergency preparedness efforts, visiting Public Health Practices – and returning often – will likely pay tremendous dividends.
Highly recommended.
