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**New** 
Recommended article from the recent special issue of the Harvard Law & Policy Review on Public Health and Biosecurity by Serena Vinter and colleagues from the Trust for America’s Health: http://hlpronline.com/2010/06/vinter_preparedness
Public Health Preparedness in a Reforming Health System
Serena Vinter*
Dara Alpert Lieberman**
Jeffrey Levi***
 INTRODUCTION 
The 2009–2010 H1N1 novel influenza A pandemic revealed serious underlying gaps in our nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies. H1N1 is the latest in a string of public health crises Americans have faced inthe past decade, which have included a nationwide food-borne disease outbreak in June and July of 2008, natural disasters like the California wildfires in August 2007 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and man-made disasters including the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 and the anthrax mailings in October of the same year.
These public health emergencies have tested our nation’s ability to respond to threats.Health officials and emergency planners define a public health emergencyas any event that has the potential to overwhelm a jurisdiction’s ability to handle the resulting health consequences. To strengthen our nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies, we must reexamine the role of the U.S. public health system. Regardless of the recent passage of health reform legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health delivery and public health systems are continually modernizing, and we must take advantage of opportunities to build prevention, preparedness,and response into our nation’s public health and health care systems.
A cornerstone of public health emergency preparedness is community resilience: the notion that healthy, well-connected communities are better prepared to both weather public health emergencies and recover from their aftermath. As detailed in the new U.S. National Health Security Strategy, public health emergency preparedness is built on a foundation of community resilience—healthy individuals,families, and communities with access to health care and with the knowledge and resources to know what to do to care for themselves and others in both routine and emergency situations. . . .Community resilience is not possible without strong and sustainable public health, health care, and emergency response systems. This level of community resilience requires a public health system that canprotect us from threats to our health and prevent disease. A prepared system must have the workforce, technology, and equipment to detect emerging pathogens, respond to disease outbreaks like H1N1, respond to natural disasters and acts of terrorism, protect our food and water supplies, immunize ourpopulation, help prevent disease, and communicate and work with at-riskpopulations.
Comprehensive health reform presents a rare opportunity to furtherstrengthen our nation. However, even with health reform, there are still majorgaps in our public health preparedness. Addressing these underlying weaknesses in our health system will not be easy or cheap, but failure to address these concerns could prove extremely costly.

Click here for full article in PDF form

Aircraft Accidents.  First Responder Safety at a Small Aircraft or Helicopter Accident.  Training Course.  FAA.

This is from the FAA.  It is a no cost on-line training about what to do if you are near a small plane or helicopter crash.  We would all do what we would do if we saw a car accident, stop and see if everyone was alright.  But a plane crash has its own collection of potential issues and this program of 5 easy to follow modules explains these issues. 

WAIT!  If you are short on time or are afraid it may be more than what you want, then read only Module 5.  But all of the modules are worthy of your time.

http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/gen_av/first_responders/

Doing some research?  Planning a program? 

HRSA: http://www.ask.hrsa.gov/

All Publications Are Available for Free.

You can order up to 10 copies of most titles and up to 25 different titles. To place a large order, call the HRSA Information Center at 888-ASK-HRSA. Items will be sent via U.S. Postal Service and will arrive within 1-2 weeks.

Is photocopying of HRSA Publications allowed? HRSA Publications are U.S. Government publications in the public domain and are not subject to copyright restrictions. You may make copies without permission. Please credit HRSA as the source.

Other great resources for publications:

AHRQ: http://ahrqpubs.ahrq.gov/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=10168

SAMHSA:  http://samhsa.gov/shin/index.aspx



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