Continuity Of Operations involves planning to continue routine or essential services in an emergency involving the health department in its facilities or staffing. 

Emergency Operations involves planning to provide services to the public in an emergency situation. This may involve mass dispensing of pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical interventions, vital records services or other incident specific measures to ensure public health is protected.

Be Prepared

In the early stages of any emergency the Emergency Management Agency and first responders will need some time to access the type and scope of the incident and initiate a response. During this time everyone can help in lessening the impact and to speed recovery by having short term personal, family and business emergency plans in place. Please take some time and visit the federal government's website for information and recommendations on preparing your plans. 

Ready.gov

An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Volunteer 

As with most small local health departments ours may not have adequate staffing and expertise to handle all aspects of a health-related response. During the Covid response for example we relied heavily on volunteers from the community to successfully set up and conduct a mass vaccination clinic. We keep a list of potential volunteers and do periodic test notifications to maintain our ability to contact them in a real emergency. The State of Indiana maintains a volunteer registry where you can sign up with your skills and preferences and is located here, SERV-IN. It is a good way to register yourself as a possible volunteer, but it is not necessary to complete your full profile in SERV-IN to sign up. You can also join our list of volunteers by contacting Mark Reed at phep@switzerland.in.gov with "volunteer" in the subject line.  *Signing up as a potential volunteer does not obligate you to respond in any specific situation.