Ripley County PHEP: Lexi Bushhorn. lbushhorn@ripleycounty.com

The purpose of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) is to prepare for, respond to, recover and mitigate - in both the short and long terms - from public health incidents. We do this by engaging and coordinating with

many community partners.

 

 

The public health’s role in community preparedness is to do the following:

 

Support the development of public health, medical, and mental/behavioral health systems that support recovery

 

Participate in awareness training with community and faith-based partners on how to prevent, respond to, and recover from public health incidents

 

Promote awareness of and access to medical and mental/behavioral health resources that help protect the community’s health and address the functional needs (i.e., communication, medical care, independence, supervision, transportation) of at-risk individuals

 

Engage public and private organizations in preparedness activities that represent the functional needs of at-risk individuals as well as the cultural and socio-economic, demographic components of the community

 

Identify those populations that may be at higher risk for adverse health outcomes

 

Receive and/or integrate the health needs of populations who have been displaced due to incidents that have occurred in their own or distant communities (e.g., improvised nuclear device or Tornado)