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PA Prep Pulse

Your Source for ESF 8 Preparedness Information

As 2024 comes to a close, we would like to take a moment to reflect and express our deep gratitude for your hard work and dedication to the safety and health of the citizens of Pennsylvania. The cooperation and collaboration within the ESF 8 community is essential to providing effective emergency preparedness and response.


This month, the Prep Pulse newsletter focuses on the importance of mass care, and the intersection between Mass Care (ESF 6) and Public Health and Medical (ESF 8) services. These mass care services ensure that basics - like shelter, food, and water - are available to everyone impacted by an emergency or disaster. By collaborating with the mass care community, we can continue to strengthen our ability to respond to emergencies and disasters of all kinds.

Mass Care in Pennsylvania

Source: Christine Heyser, PA Department of Human Services

 

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (PA DHS) serves as the lead commonwealth agency for Emergency Support Function 6 (ESF-6), which provides mass care, emergency assistance, housing, and human services during disasters.


PA DHS works closely with the American Red Cross, a key partner in ensuring the delivery of mass care services. The Red Cross does nearly all the disaster sheltering in Pennsylvania. PA DHS can provide support for a locally managed shelter or open a Commonwealth managed shelter to support a large-scale need for shelter in an impacted community. PA DOH is a key partner in support of commonwealth managed sheltering, providing medical services for shelter residents.


PA DHS also fills in gaps by providing staffing support with our internal Disaster Response Team and material goods for mass care including sheltering items such as cots and hygiene kits, assistive technology to support communication needs for individuals with disabilities, and other commodities including shelf stable meals and bottled water.


Spotlight on Fully Deployable PA DHS Equipment & Capabilities

  • Medical cots – Over 1,000 accessible cots useful both in a shelter setting or as medical cots at an alternate care site when IV poles (also included in our cache) are added.
  • Western Shelters - Two 19x35’ tents complete with power generation, lighting and HVAC.
  •  Functional Assessment Service Team (FAST) - Specialty trained staff who help with disability accommodation needs, freeing up medical staff to do medical things.


Spotlight on PA DHS Mass Care Activities

  • Staffing support for Commodity Point of Distribution (C-POD) operations in Cumberland County following a large water outage and need for bottled water distribution (August 2024)
  • Tropical Storm Debby support for counties in north central PA included support at Multi Agency Resource Centers (MARCs), Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs), Emergency Behavioral Health support, and Disaster Case Management intake to assist survivors with complicated recovery needs (August-November 2024)
  • Conducted the National Mass Care Exercise involving a full-scale Commonwealth managed shelter and activation of mass care task forces engaging 110 partner agencies (May 2024)
  •  Provided 5.1 million meals in the early days of the pandemic to support food insecurity (May-June 2020)


PA DHS support, be it staffing support to assist with human services related needs or material goods, can be requested by an official Resource Request submitted via PEMA.


For more about Mass Care in Pennsylvania, visit us at www.dhs.pa.gov/MassCare or contact Christine Heyser at cheyser@pa.gov. 

PA DOH and Mass Care

Article Submitted by: Leslie McCurdy, PA Department of Health


Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH) provides public health and medical services support to ensure adequate public health and medical services in local mass care/sheltering operations. Upon request from the affected county/counties or the American Red Cross, or the direction of Governor Josh Shapiro, Department of Human Services (PA DHS) establishes one or more state-managed shelters.


PA DOH supports and coordinates efforts regarding ESF 8: Public Health and Medical Services. Specific to Mass Care/Shelter Operations, those efforts include:


1.   Provide public health and medical service personnel, equipment and supplies.

2.   Provide medical screening, triage and referral.

3.   Coordinate with PA DHS to provide mental/behavioral health screening, triage and referral.

4.   Provide medical care for chronic and non-urgent acute conditions.

5.   Provide surveillance and disease outbreak management.

6.   Assist in the replacement of medications and consumable medical supplies (CMS).

7.   Assist in the replacement of durable medical equipment (DME) and assistive technology (AT) to support shelter residents’ ability to function independently.

8.   Provide support to the Access and Functional Needs of at-risk individuals in conjunction with PA DHS.


PA DOH responds as requested, and as able, to support an incident operation. When local jurisdictions activate mass care/shelter operations, and their public health and medical support for mass care/shelter operations capabilities need augmented or are overwhelmed, PA DOH provides assistance. PA DOH BEPR establishes public health and medical support for PA DHS state-managed shelter(s) by staffing, managing, and supplying the medical branch, when requested.


Currently, PA DOH has medical materials (ACES Kits) to support ten, 10-bed shelters. The Alternate Care-site Equipment Systems (ACES) exist to be a stop/gap solution when a situation pushes a medical system past its limitations. One ACES unit contains a 10-bed medical ward that can be delivered anywhere and set up within approximately an hour of arrival. The system is meant to be deployed to a facility such as any medical facility or gymnasium. The systems were created with the intention of one ACES unit arriving in a box truck. Each ACES unit will have a minimum of one staff member arriving with the unit to assist in the setup of the unit, and you will need a minimum of four people with the ability to lift a minimum of 35 lbs. to complete the setup. An ACES unit does not include equipment or devices that have an expiration date. Any equipment having an expiration date would need to be procured by the requesting entity.

Requesting an ACES unit for deployment purposes should be routed through your local EMA and follow the same process for requesting any other emergency management equipment. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has nine deployable ACES units and one training unit.


If you would like further information or request training for the ACES units, please contact Ronald Henschel at rohenschel@pa.gov / 717.787.8740 or paemsoffice@pa.gov.



December Observances


Dec 5 - International Volunteer Day

Dec 13 - National Guard's 388th Birthday

Dec 14 - National Wreaths Across America Day

Dec 21 - First Day of Winter

Dec 24 - Christmas Eve

Dec 25 - Christmas Day - State offices are closed

Dec 31 - New Year’s Eve


Hanukkah: Dec. 25 – Jan. 2

Kwanzaa: Dec. 26 – Jan. 1

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