Compliance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) is a critical piece of your community’s preparedness programs, but has anyone really explained how public health activities fit into the NIMS framework? You may have heard that your preparedness work should be “NIMS compliant” but what does that mean for you, working daily on the frontline of public health? Join our live studio audience in answering these questions and several others during this 90-minute program on the implications of NIMS for public health. Through the presentation and dialog with the studio audience and viewers around the country, participants will learn the basics of NIMS and related Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) initiatives. The program will focus on practical “take-home” information for local and state public health personnel seeking to learn more about NIMS and NIMS compliance in the future.

Teach to the Test:

After viewing the program and studying the materials, it is expected that many users will be able to log on and pass the IS-700 final exam administered by FEMA.

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

1. List the major goals, concepts, and principles of NIMS.
2. Describe the relevance of NIMS to public health.
3. Describe NIMS and its relationship to other elements of preparedness including the National Response Plan and the use of the Incident Command System.

Speakers provide clear guidance for bioterrorism coordinators, clinical staff and administrative personnel to be better prepared to manage psychosocial reactions of communities and individuals, and to communicate effectively internally, between response partners and with the public during radiological emergencies.

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

1. Use core principles of risk communication to focus health messages effectively in a radiological emergency.
2. Anticipate common reactions among individuals and communities to radiological events in order to plan effectively and minimize negative effects on the public’s health and well-being.
3. Identify resources available to assist public health, clinical and mental health professionals in communicating effectively with internal and external audiences during radiological events.

Presenters share research results related to mass evacuation to rural areas, practical tips to deal with mass evacuees, as well as a tool developed by the Western New York Public Health Alliance Rural Advanced Practice Center to predict community population surge following potential urban disasters.

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

1. Recognize potential issues related to spontaneous evacuation to rural areas
2. Identify actions rural planners can take to mitigate the impact of a spontaneous evacuation
3. Utilize a tool to predict community population surge following potential urban disasters

The presenters will share results of a recent survey regarding potential behavioral responses of large populations to disaster events - including terrorist attacks - and will discuss key concerns for rural communities to consider as they plan for mass exodus from urban centers. They will also share new efforts underway by the recently funded Advanced Practice Center in western New York.

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

1. To identify the relationship between public health events and evacuation behavior in the general public
2. To recognize the potential scale of such an evacuation event.
3. To identify planning challenges for rural communities that might serve as receiving areas for evacuees.

This program highlights the importance of developing local preparedness initiatives to manage animal emergencies. The speaker describes the human resources potentially involved in animal emergency preparedness and response activities, and the benefits to their integration into the local emergency management system.