Public Health Emergency Preparedness - Delaware is small state with a population of 990,000 and industries that include banking, tourism, and agriculture. As the home of several beach destinations, the population soars during the summer season. Delaware is a centralized state with no local public health departments nor any federally recognized American Indian or Alaska Native tribes. The Division of Public Health (DPH) Emergency Medical Services and Preparedness Section (EMSPS) held more than 15 planning meetings with partners to determine the best approach to take to further public health preparedness in Delaware. Approach Strategies and activities Delaware will use funding and focus efforts on the cross-cutting program priorities described in CDC’s Response Readiness Framework. The fifteen public health emergency preparedness capabilities will guide our implementation of proposed evidence-based strategies and activities to: • prioritize a risk-based approach to all-hazards planning and improve readiness, response, and recovery capacity for existing and emerging public health threats and modernized laboratory and electronic data systems. • improve whole community readiness, response, and recovery through enhanced partnerships and improved communication systems for timely situational awareness and risk communication. • maintain capacity to meet jurisdictional administrative, budget, and public health surge management needs and to improve public health response workforce recruitment, retention, resilience, and mental health. Preparedness plan Develop, maintain, and share with project officer, upon request, current versions of these plans: o Emergency Operations Coordination Plan o High Consequence Infectious Disease Surveillance & Response Plan o Pandemic Influenza Plan o MCM distribution and dispensing plan o COOP Plan o Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threat response plan o Volunteer Management Plan o Crisis Risk Communications Annex Develop and coordinate plans with Hospital Preparedness Program and other relevant partners for disproportionately affected populations that include people with behavioral health and access and functional needs such as: o Children o Older adults o People who are pregnant o People with disabilities o Minorities and other diverse populations with a disproportionate burden of disease and disability o People from underserved populations o People with limited English proficiency and non-English speaking Outcomes Delaware will complete the proposed projects and activities to maintain and/or improve our readiness, response, and recovery capacity. By the end of the period of performance we expect to achieve or make progress on: 1. Refined risk assessment for equitable community planning that address Access and Functional Needs (AFN) populations. 2. Complete a refined hazard vulnerability analysis. 3. Completed exercise requirements that identify areas for improved readiness, response, and recovery. 4. Prevention or reduced morbidity and mortality from public health incidents 5. Sustained public health readiness, response, and recovery capability. 6. Earliest identification and investigation of incidents with public health impact 7. Enhanced ability of Delaware Public Health Lab to respond to public health incidents. 8. Timely communication of situational awareness and risk information 9. Maintained partnerships to ensure messages and dissemination strategies are effective for the whole community. 10. Timely coordination and support of response and recovery activities with health care agencies and partners 11. Earliest possible recovery and return of the public health system to pre-incident levels or improved functioning. 12. Integrated equity into public health emergency response and recovery 13. Prepared public health workforce ready to sustain public health investigations, response, and recovery. 14. Increased recruitment, retention, and engagement of volunteers (surge staff). 15. Active engagemen
