Eight School of Public Health students recently returned from Kentucky, where they participated in tornado relief efforts. Their work – conducting a door-to-door community assessment – will inform ongoing relief efforts.
The U-M team arrived in Kentucky on a Friday evening and worked through the weekend to perform a community assessment for public health emergency response (CASPER). The purpose of CASPER is to determine the health status and basic needs of an affected community in a quick and low-cost manner. Using a two-stage cluster sampling, members of the team interviewed households within the area impacted by the tornados that struck Kentucky on March 2, 2012.
“Important public health work takes place in the days and weeks following a disaster,” says Dr. Eden Wells, a member of the SPH faculty who accompanied the student group. “Our assessment results will be used by public health practitioners and emergency management officials to determine the immediate health status and basic needs of the community members affected. Those needs might include getting someone their prescription medications or arranging for home health care visits.”
Gathering health and basic needs information allows public health and emergency managers to prioritize their responses and to make informed decisions regarding the distribution of resources. The assessment also helps determine what worked and what didn’t, so that emergency responders can be better prepared for future disasters. The CASPER assessment tool was developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to standardize assessment procedures for U.S. public health disaster response.
The Michigan Public Health Action Support Team (PHAST) received advance preparation for its Kentucky assignment. Five students on the team were enrolled in “Epidemiology and Public Health Management of Disasters,” a course taught by Wells. In early March, the students completed a disaster simulation exercise, followed by a guest lecture from Commander Margaret Riggs, a CDC career epidemiology field officer stationed in Kentucky. “Riggs saw the level of preparedness that Michigan students had received, and she asked us to deploy a PHAST team to the Kentucky area hit by storms,” Wells says. “A series of events coalesced, demonstrating our readiness and preparedness to take on this assignment.”
Others participating on the U-M team included a regional epidemiologist, three public health associates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who are stationed at the Michigan Department of Community Health, and the staff leader of the Public Health Action Support Team.
Dana Thomas led the U-M PHAST Kentucky team. Thomas says PHAST teams have made 14 trips, with four to disaster sites, including a 2006 field experience to areas afflicted by the Katrina Hurricane. Locally, just 5 miles west of Ann Arbor, a recent EF-3 tornado impacted Dexter. If the health department or emergency management have particular questions that could be addressed with a CASPER, there now are local and state epidemiologists and public health preparedness responders who are now able to respond.
The PHAST program is based in the Office of Public Health Practice, which prepares students to respond to public health issues and emergencies throughout the school year. PHAST has proven to be a vital resource for training students, engaging faculty and assisting communities.
