In: Nursing
Prepare a community engagement and mobilization strategy for an emergency response plan for an outbreak of the Ebola virus. Your strategy should clearly state a step-by-step approach that ensures that communities are engaged to have an active role alongside authorities and health agencies in the plan to rapidly respond to the threat of the spread of the disease. The strategy should use headings for each stage of engagement, consultation, participation, organisation, capacity building, action and possibly empowerment. Explain your decision to use either a top-down and/or bottom-up approach.
An emergency response plan for an outbreak of the Ebola virus
GOAL:
To reduce the mortality and morbidity caused by Ebola through limiting the spread of infection by uniting communities , health care services, education and proper funds.
Response plan:
Coordination and Cooperation:The government should support the people by providing basic needs and always be in contact with the communities via television or radio and also guide the people by providing counselling to everyone using media . Provide training to act in a coordinated way to decrease the spread of the disease. Unity is strength ,so when all the people, government organisations, healthcare concerns unite against EBOLA , it can be prevented efficiently.
Surveillance: Early detection leads to isolation of cases which helps in preventing transmission of the virus. This requires teams of epidemiologists and contact tracers in the field, supported by a laboratory service able to provide rapid, safe and accurate testing of samples.Engage the people in community to bring the ill members for laboratory investigation.
Information management system: To ensure that the updation about the prevention plans and epidemiological reports reach all the people as a part of mulitisectoral operation .Conduct interpersonal and mass communication sessions using information systems.
Access to healthcare services is most important in the emergency plan which helps to reduce the spread of infection.
Immunisation should be carried out. Provide vaccination to people in overall community to restrict the spread of the virus and also it provides time to affect the individual.
Ensure continued provision of health services in affected areas through free access, incentive payments to health workers and provision of medicines/medical equipment.Continue preparing more isolation centres to isolate the affected people to give them better care and prevent the rest of the community from EBOLA epidemic.
Continuously monitor and evaluate the epidemiological findings and health care services to find whether the goal is achieved.