September 2020 Newsletter

Louisiana Hurricane Response Hub Responds to Hurricane Laura

On August 27, 2020, Hurricane Laura, made landfall in coastal southwestern Louisiana. Laura, a deadly Category 4 hurricane, tied the 1856 Last Island hurricane as the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Louisiana.

In the wake of Hurricane Laura, communities throughout Louisiana are recovering from immense devastation. The Louisiana Hurricane Response Hub (LA HRH), a program under the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI is leveraging its statewide infrastructure, services, partnerships, and individual support to assist with Louisiana’s response and recovery.

We know from past disasters the importance of moving quickly to address community needs, especially when the situation has been further compounded by the severe impacts of COVID-19.

In response, Louisiana Hurricane Response Hub has developed 2 levels of response opportunities:

Individual donations to address immediate needs such as cleaning supplies, food, personal protective equipment (PPE) and childcare items.

Partnership Opportunities to address longer term recovery and resiliency needs, These opportunities include Rapid Response Fund Management, Community Action Forums, Public Health Response efforts, and Government Agency support.

For more information, or to explore other ideas, please contact Michelle Lackovic.

Oklahoma Public Health Training Center and CBT Partners Celebrate Completion of Field Placements

Upper Row: Dr. Kerstin M. Reinschmidt, Olawale Dudubo, Caleb Alexander

Middle Row: Amanda Llaneza, Atul Abraham Muttenchery, Tatiana Elonge

Bottom Row: Kelly Nguyen, Terrance Todome

On August 3, 2020, the Oklahoma Public Health Training Center (OPHTC) celebrated its 2019-2020 student field placements. Participants included Kerstin M. Reinschmidt, PhD, MPH (OPHTC PI), Olawale Dudubo, MS (OPHTC GRA), and stipend recipients who had successfully completed their projects despite barriers posed by COVID-19. Meeting virtually, awardees reflected on their experiences and discussed their expectations for the future.

Terrance Todome, MPH worked with the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board (SPTHB) to conduct community surveys focused on prescription drugs and behavioral health. He appreciated the experience gained from creating his own project. Terrance plans to work with tribal populations in public health, and the SPTHB gave him opportunity to make important connections.

Kelly Nguyen, MPH and Tatiana Elonge, MPH collaborated with the Wellness Now Community Health Worker (CHW) Work Group at the Oklahoma City County Health Department (OCCHD) to conduct needs and assets assessments. While Kelly worked with a Hispanic community in a priority zip code in south Oklahoma City, Tatiana worked in the northeastern part of the city with a large African American community. Both were grateful to the CHWs who helped overcome pandemic-related barriers by reaching out to community members by phone. Kelly enjoyed learning about community perceptions and OCCHD initiatives. Tatiana appreciated the need for flexibility to complete the project. Moving forward, she plans to work with African American communities.

Caleb Alexander, MPH worked with the Oklahoma Dementia Care Network to help develop and implement a survey for nursing home employees focused on training needs to provide better care to the residents. While he could not fully implement the survey due to COVID-19, Caleb appreciated practicing research skills, and learning about the responsibilities of nursing home staff. He will use this experience going forward, attending medical school to benefit his future patients.

Amanda Llaneza worked with the SPTHB’s Native Oral Health Network. She contributed to comparing local and national data, and creating an oral health report to spread awareness among Native American communities. Her project provided her with the experience of gaining direct insight into the importance of cultural appropriateness. Amanda valued this unique opportunity for a student to work within a multidisciplinary network and to be able to understand and improve health outcomes.

Atul Abraham Muttenchery worked with the Oklahoma Public Health Association. He contributed to creating surveys aimed at increasing membership, improving member engagement, and planning for the upcoming annual OPHA conference. For Atul, working as part of the field placement program was reassuring because it showed that students can be engaged in meaningful projects. He will present about his experience and the field placement program at the 2020 OPHA conference later this month.

The Oklahoma CBT partners are proud of our awardees and wish them all the best in their future adventures. Congratulations awardees!

Course Spotlight:

TxHRH 102 - Public Health's Role During a Hurricane

Course Description:

This training addresses how public health works with local government and healthcare agencies to prepare and protect communities from disasters including hurricanes. Public health departments lead health and medical actions in their jurisdictions, which can include evacuations, health surveillance during response and often continuing into recovery.

Learning Objectives:

Recognize the relevant local government, public health, and healthcare agencies involved disaster preparedness

Identify relevant local government, public health, and healthcare agencies respective roles and decision-making abilities

Correctly associate the respective resources with the relevant agencies during and after a hurricane

Discuss how roles change and differ as an area transitions from an active emergency through to recovery

For more information about

this training, please click here.

Featured Course Bundle:

First Responder Preparedness

Course Bundle Description:

The First Responder Preparedness course bundle contains 5 trainings that cover communication, field exercises, handing of chemical agents

and biological response preparedness.

Trainings in this bundle include:

Recognition and Safe Handling of Chemical Terrorist Agents (2 hours)

Practice-based Scenarios for Recognition, Detection and Exposure Assessment of Chemical Terrorist Agents (3 hours)

Biological Response Preparedness for Emergency Medical Services (4 hours)

Communication Gap: Linking First Responders and First Receivers (3 hours)

Planning, Implementation and Exploitation of a Field Exercise (6 hours)

For additional information about this course bundle, please click here.

Looking for more training on a specific topic in public health? Need additional training on a current public health hot topic? We want to help you address these needs. Please email us and let us know about your current training needs/interests/issues. We will evaluate our current trainings to see if we have something that can address your area of interest.

Email us at r6-phtc@tulane.edu.

We look forward to your feedback!