Introduction and Overview
The response to an influenza pandemic will pose substantial physical, personal, social, mental and emotional challenges to healthcare providers, public health officials, and other emergency responders and essential service workers. These psychosocial effects related to pandemic flu are likely to negatively affect disaster response efforts, possibly impacting efforts to control and contain the outbreak. Psychological concerns may reduce responder performance or contribute to high rates of absenteeism, diminishing the effectiveness of disaster relief efforts. This may contribute to problems associated with medical surge and the capacity to effectively respond.
Occupational stresses experienced by essential service workers during a pandemic are different than those faced in natural disasters. The expected duration of the pandemic, personal risks faced by medical, public health and other responders, and concerns related to family safety expose these individuals to greater physical and psychological threat. These added risks require that healthcare and other responder organizations plan and implement a range of supportive measures focused on employee health and safety. Equal attention must be directed toward the emotional impacts of pandemic so that the essential service workers are able to respond effectively.
Organizational resilience refers to an organization's capacity to "respond" or "bounce back" from stresses placed upon it and its employees. Resilient organizations have the capacity to make and carry out realistic plans. Preparation, staff training, effective communication, a supportive workplace, and thoughtful planning are essential ingredients of resilient organizations. The effectiveness of responders can be enhanced through workforce resilience programs designed to address the range of occupational stresses that may disproportionately affect essential service workers.
Goals of the Workforce Resilience Toolkit
The goals of the Workforce Resilience Toolkit are to promote resilience by:
- Familiarizing healthcare and other responder organizations with the unique psychosocial stressors that emergency responders and their families may encounter during a pandemic.
- Assisting healthcare and other responder organizations to continue ongoing preparations and planning for pandemic in order to promote worker health and safety, and to mitigate the potential negative psychosocial effects of pandemic.
- Describing a workforce resilience program model.
- Providing an array of resources to inform the development of a successful workforce resilience program.
The Pandemic Influenza Workforce Resilience Toolkit is targeted to healthcare providers, public health professionals, emergency responders and other essential service workers. The Toolkit is also intended to provide resources for family members of responders who may be experiencing stress related to a loved one's emergency response role.