4. Preparedness

4.11. Partnerships - Whole Community & Emergency Management

Partnerships

Why do partnerships matter for pediatric disaster behavioral health? 

Pediatric disaster behavioral health (PDBH) efforts cannot succeed in isolation. Children’s needs will occur across the community, from schools to clinics, and the resources are likewise widely distributed. Without integration into broader response and recovery structures, disaster behavioral health efforts will be isolated, uninformed, and removed from broader response efforts. As such, this toolkit recommends a “whole community” approach and engagement with a wide variety of community partners in preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.

This section provides broad recommendations, specific start points, and critical connections for pediatric disaster behavioral health collaboration efforts. Please reference the PDBH Potential Partnerships Table for further details on the partners listed below and beyond.

Core Recommendations:

  • Leverage existing relationships: Work through your facility’s emergency management program to connect with external coalitions and planning systems.
  • Build partnerships before disasters: Integrate pediatric disaster behavioral health into risk analysis, planning, training, and referrals/interventions. 
    • These established partnerships will support ongoing planning, build trust between services, and increase competence in their actions during a disaster. Behavioral health services and staff change frequently so ongoing collaboration is essential. 
  • Organizations should prepare for a sustained effort focused on progressive gains rather than “one and done” solutions. 
    • Preparing adequately to meet the pediatric disaster behavioral health needs post disaster is an immense undertaking.

Critical connections: Where to get started?

  • Connect with the local (city/county) emergency management planning structures and coalitions via your emergency management program. Specific potential connection points are outlined further in this list.
  • Health Care Coalitions (HCCs) – Define the HCC’s role in pediatric disaster behavioral health. Identify what your organization can engage in to support these efforts.
    • Depending on the local HCC’s mission and capabilities, they may be the central point for planning and coordination of disaster behavioral health services, including pediatric care. Connecting with these groups to integrate into preparedness, response, and recovery activities may be critical. Each HCC has a different mission, scope, and capabilities.
  • Emergency Support Function (ESF) #6 Mass Care, #8 Public Health & Medical Services – Determine where pediatric disaster behavioral health is reflected in these plans at a local level. List who is engaged in these efforts and what their identified roles are. Assess to what degree these plans have been trained on and tested via exercise. Verify whether they have been tested in a real incident. Identify how your agency can engage with and support pediatric disaster behavioral health in these plans and response structures.
    • These local planning and coordination structures bring together a wide variety of partners from the community, including governmental, nongovernmental, faith-based, and private sector partners. 
    • ESF#6 focuses on “mass care” which includes sheltering, feeding, and short-term casework. These organizations can be a key community partner when coordinating situational awareness and care for those receiving services. They will include partners from a wide variety of sectors. 
    • ESF#8 focuses on the public health and medical aspects of disaster response, including behavioral health. Pediatric disaster behavioral health elements should be integrated into ESF#8 risk analysis, planning, training, and exercise programs.
    • Note: Not all emergency operations plans use the ESF structure. If a different planning structure is used (such as agency or department focused), identify where disaster behavioral health is represented in that plan structure instead.
  • Voluntary/Community Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD, COAD) – Identify what resources and supports these organizations can provide related to pediatric disaster behavioral health. Define how your agency can partner with these organizations to conduct outreach and community engagement around pediatric disaster behavioral health.
    • By connecting to ESF#6 efforts, you will be able to reach most of these organizations. The local VOAD/COAD may be a key place to engage the community in meaningful preparedness and partnership opportunities – particularly with faith-based or non-governmental organizations.
  • Other Community Connections – Assess which community organizations are planning for disaster response. Who has disaster behavioral health plans? What child-focused organizations are involved?
    • For example, schools are often a critical partner for children’s hospitals to establish partnerships with and are tasked with maintaining a crisis response plan. 
    • Review and consider the list of potential partners provided by this toolkit. 

How to begin working together?

  • Develop your organization’s planned mission and role in pediatric disaster behavioral health and explore how this role can support and be supported by interagency efforts.
  • Investigate whether there are already existing groups focused on this issue. Assess existing plans where they may exist (e.g., ESF#6, ESF#8, recovery plans).
  • Create collaborative pediatric disaster behavioral health preparedness goals for your community. Clarify specific outcomes, including relationship building and specific response/recovery capabilities.
  • Make connections with interagency groups and key partners in the community and create a plan for ongoing planning/collaboration to determine resources and roles.
  • Determine the key audiences or communities that need to be reached and how to connect with those groups.
    • Consider partnerships listed in the model who are connected to children and families (I.e., Schools, faith based and other community organizations, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs)/other BH agencies/providers.) You can find a list of potential partners here. 
  • Consider collaborative efforts to satisfy the needs based on the disaster cycle6 (non-exhaustive examples):   
    • Preparedness: Create educational materials for families on coping skills, ensure organizational staff competence in disaster behavioral health interventions, coordinate on information sharing and public communication strategies;
    • Response: Behavioral health triage and referral to evidence-based treatment, share situational awareness regarding needs and capacity, coordinate on messaging;
    • Recovery: monitor on-going behavioral health symptoms and refer as needed, transition messaging to recovery-based needs; 
    • Mitigation: address social-related health care needs, connect pediatric behavioral health experts with the legislative and emergency management policy efforts.