OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a tornado disaster on the personal preparedness of local residents to determine (1) to what extent the tornado outbreak experience had altered preparedness awareness, willingness to act, and levels of personal preparedness of residents as measured by possession of a preparedness kit; and (2) what effect this experience had on the...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to enhance public health preparedness for incidents that involve the large-scale release of a hazardous substance by examining factors likely to influence public responses to official guidance on how to limit their exposure. METHODS An online demographically representative survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (n = 601) and Poland (n = 602) to test the...

To increase the preparedness Crisis response and management authorities carry out various forms of exercises. This article is based upon a three year long project named Gaining security symbiosis (GSS). The project was aiming to increase the collaboration between crisis actors in the Swedish-Norway border region through exercises. We argue that creation of scenarios is a design challenge. In th...

OBJECTIVES All-hazards preparedness was evaluated in North Carolina's 85 local health departments (LHDs). METHODS In regional meetings, data were collected from LHD teams from North Carolina's LHDs using an instrument constructed from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's preparedness indicators and from the Local Public Health Preparedness and Response Capacity Inventory. RESULTS AN...

Canada is in the forefront of thinking about the unique and complex issues of contemporary public health ethics. However, an inordinate focus on the urgent issues of emergency preparedness in pandemic and reliance on bioethical analysis steeped in the autonomy and individual rights tradition of health care and research do not serve adequately as the basis for an ethic of public health with its ...

Our research reflects an emerging shift in understandings of effective preparedness practices from siloed approaches toward more holistic views. We trace a shifting perspective emerging in literature and present in the early qualitative data of current preparedness experts’ interviews within an international humanitarian organization whose core mission is disaster preparedness and response. Des...