Disaster Recovery Plan for Reducing Health Disparities and Improving Community Resilience

Week 7: Disaster recovery plan

Determinants of health and barriers that affect recovery:

Key determinants:

• Economic- Poverty rates increase, limitations of insurance, and income decreases after any kind of disaster.
• Environmental- Houses are damaged, transportations are limited, and roads are blocked due to debris after a disaster (Porter et al., 2023).
• Social: Some of the key social determinants after a disaster are the homeless population, the elderly living alone, barriers of language, and migrant workers.
• Health- Probability of chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes increases, and access to primary care can be limited.

Significant barriers:

• Communication- Internet issues, English proficiency gets limited, and cases of hearing impairment can be increased.  
• Cultural- People have a lack of trust in authorities, and workers who do not have proper documentation often are fearful of the increased risk of deportation (Houser, 2022).
• Financial- Due to financial issues, people are unable to relocate, replace medication, or even face issues paying for transportation.

Recovery plan for reducing disparities:

Major objectives:

The major objectives that help to reduce disparities after a disaster, associated with Healthy People 2030, are provided below-

• Preparedness (EM-01)- This actually ensures equal access to emergency requirement services (Khorram-Manesh et al., 2025).
• Social determinants (SDOH-04)- After a disaster, this helps the community to access resources (Porter et al., 2023).
• Health communication (HC/HIT-01)- This section helps to improve access within a proper time, along with correct information.

Role of the plan to improve equity:

• Transportation vouchers are available to visit health care providers and pick up medication.
• Access to mobile medical teams for shelters, along with areas of high risk.
• Presence of multilingual interpreters at all of the emergency centers (Walker, 2023).
• Presence of contact tracing mapping for the people who are displaced in order to follow the care plan.
• Required care is available for the migrant workers as well as people who are homeless.  

Influences of policy on the process of recovery:

Relevant legislation-

• Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA- It needs shelters, ASL interpreters, and equal communications that are easily accessible.
• Disaster Recovery Reform Act or DRRA- This act helps in the process of mitigation, supports collaboration of FEMA, ensuring rebuilding of schools or clinics.
• Robert T. Stafford Act- This act represents federal funding for emergency removal of debris, housing, and medical services.

Crisis communication associated with CERC:

i. Gathering of information:

• Monitoring of media and social media.
• Community surveys, along with GIS trace mapping.
• Coordinating with PIOs like hospitals, EMS, and schools.

ii. Dissemination of information:

• Using SMA alerts, printed flyers, and the radio.
• Regular updates to officials.
• Multilingual hotlines and briefing.

iii. Operational support:

• Presence of translators and ASLs on the affected site.
• Presence of telehealth for the follow-up of chronic diseases.
• Availability of generator communication hubs.  

iv. Liaisons:

• Groups that are faith-dependent, schools, various NGOs, and the health workers of the community.

Roles and associated personnel:

• Social workers- They are responsible for taking care of housing and their benefits.
• Incident commander- They help to oversee the recovery process.
• CHWs- They have roles for outreach, support for language, and trace-mapping.
• Public information officer- The role of these officers is to manage the overall communication process (Walker, 2023).
• Nurses and mobile team- Helps to manage chronic care, triage, and vaccination.

Timeline of recovery period:

0-72 hours

• Rescue and continuous searching process.
• Mobile clinics and medical triage.
• Starting a briefing for the press.
• Providing shelters and performing trace mapping.

Week 1-4

• Searching and reconnecting with families.
• Organize programs for mental health and first-aid programs.
• Removal of debris along with availability of temporary housing (Porter et al., 2023).
• Reintroduce to pharmacies along with clinics.

Month 1-6

• Reconstruction of schools, houses, and different community centers.
• Medical follow-up for a longer time.
• Updated training for future community disasters.
• Evaluation of clear communication and articulation.

Evidence-based communication process and strategies of collaboration:

Strategies

• Using the teach-back method to provide instruction for ESL as well as older individuals.
• Unified command structure, in short, NIMS helps to further coordination.
• Communication associated with SBAR through inter-professional teams.  
• Use of bilingual community minister.
• CERC principles imply being first, being credible, expressing empathy, and also promoting action.

Support for evidence:

• Several studies show that multilingual communications help to lower morbidity at the time of disaster.
• Community health workers assist in improving further, following up, and decreasing inconsistency in the areas of disaster.
• CDC data thoroughly confirms that culturally personalized messaging improves safety measures and associated compliance.  

References

Houser, R. S. (2022). A Collaborative Model for Equitable Response and Recovery in Emergency Management. Journal of Emergency Management and Disaster Communications, 3(02), 57-81.

Khorram-Manesh, A., Eskici, G. T., & Gray, L. (2025). Enhancing global disaster preparedness: A scoping review of the current integration of situational awareness and disaster mindset in healthcare education. AIMS public health, 12(3), 735.

Porter, J. E., Dabkowski, E., Ghasemirdekani, M., Barbagallo, M. S., James, M. H., Prokopiv, V., & Wright, W. (2023). The impact of nature-led recovery initiatives for individual and community health post-disaster: a systematic literature review. Reviews on environmental health, 38(4), 637-646.

Walker, K. (2023). Analyzing US census data: Methods, maps, and models in R. Chapman and Hall/CRC.