SOPHE Emergency Preparedness Needs Assessment

The Society for Public Health Education is partnering with CDC's Community Health Outreach and Education Team under the Emergency Communications System (ECS) to develop an infrastructure for supporting health educators in preparing for and responding to a variety of emergency events.

In the late Fall of 2007, SOPHE conducted a web-based needs assessment for public health emergency preparedness and response. The assessment was designed to gather information about state, local and other health educators, and assess their interest, experience, knowledge, and training needs regarding emergency preparedness and response.

A total number of 539 responses were submitted during that time period, and are currently being analyzed. The information gathered from this assessment was used to help identify gaps in existing emergency preparedness and response training for health educators and other health promotion specialists. After identifying such gaps, it is our hope that SOPHE will be able to develop a training plan that will provide the framework for implementing the necessary training and continuing education opportunities to strengthen the skills and knowledge base of the members of the EPHE network and ultimately improve public health emergency response.

Results of the assessment will be presented at future SOPHE's meetings. SOPHE also plans to submit the results for publication in a future issue of our professional journal, Health Promotion Practice.