Strengthening Leadership, Risk Communications, and Preparedness in the Islands
August 26, 2024 | Sidnie Christian, Alyssa Boyea
ASTHO convened a two-day, in-person workshop in Honolulu from June 25 – 26, bringing together public health preparedness staff from American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaiʻi, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and Palau, as well as federal partners from CDC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. The workshop focused on leadership and workforce development, risk communications, administrative preparedness, and more to support island areas as they prepare for and respond to natural disasters and other emerging public health threats, of which emerged key learnings that can benefit all island jurisdictions.
Leadership and Workforce Development
Leading through change requires transparency, trust, and collaboration. Planned change involves assessing readiness for change, identifying resources needed, securing buy-in, and determining a path forward. However, sometimes change can leave little to no time for preparation. Island jurisdictions have encountered challenges in the face of change, with many workshop participants sharing firsthand challenges around retaining institutional knowledge, infrastructure, and receiving assistance from the mainland United States in a timely fashion. As such, change readiness, succession planning, and effective change management practices are of utmost importance in the islands. Key recommendations and takeaways include:
- Utilizing a reputable framework, such as Kotter 8-Step Change Model, is pivotal for improving change readiness and change management. Change management frameworks and methods can assist with different types of change including structural change, strategic operational change, people-centric change, etc.
- Trust is hard to build, but easy to lose. Participants spoke about characteristics of high trust relationships including open communication, consistency, good judgement or expertise, and cultural sensitivity, while low trust relationships characteristics include lack of communication, inconsistency, and lack of teamwork.
- Succession planning is important to ensure institutional knowledge and capabilities remain in the wake of staff turnover or retirement. Identifying the necessary expertise, skills, and capabilities for each role is vital in the case of unplanned changes in staffing. Promising practices include annual review of critical positions, conducting talent calibration sessions, defining action plans, and obtaining buy-in from leadership and relevant partners.
Risk Communications
The island jurisdictions face emergencies that require creative response efforts. Both Hawaiʻi and RMI demonstrated innovative approaches in risk communications during COVID-19, finding success in forming critical partnerships, utilizing trusted voices within the community, and bridging communication gaps:
- Hawaiʻi utilized social media to showcase individuals such as doctors, pastors, social media influencers, and even local sports teams getting vaccinated, and utilized trusted voices to deliver messages. Additionally, they translated their materials into three languages (Marshallese, Samoan, and Hawaiʻian), modeling that no one gets forgotten, the true meaning of “ohana.”
- RMI created a working group with a mix of partners that curated press releases, educational materials, and sitreps, and served as a liaison between RMI Ministry of Health and Human Services and the community. It also partnered with several media outlets (e.g., radio stations, local papers, and other private sectors) and utilized mass text messaging to spread information quickly. The latter proved to resonate with most island jurisdictions who struggle with staying connected to hard-to-reach populations, namely those in more rural and disconnected communities. RMI was able to connect with these populations through WhatsApp to keep them updated throughout the COVID-19 response.
Administrative Preparedness
Improving administrative preparedness plans and processes ensure timely and efficient access to needed resources for a public health response. Most workshop participants are currently in the process of updating existing administrative preparedness plans, while some are working with other departments to create and implement new plans.
Attendees discussed key partnerships for collaboration including other departments, Medical Reserve Corps, and other volunteer organizations. One common key challenge that emerged was around staffing (e.g., finding qualified people to fill vacancies, hiring process issues, making sure positions are competitive, etc.). To address this issue, island jurisdictions can work closely with other departments or jurisdictional agencies to streamline current processes, establish memorandums of understanding with different partners/facilities to assist with emergency procurement, and ensuring staffing vacancies are competitive and match public health classifications.
Disease Forecasting
A survey on state and territorial expertise and needs for infectious disease forecasts, models, and other outbreak analytic techniques—implemented by ASTHO with support from CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics—revealed that respondents from island jurisdictions experienced several barriers that led to limited use of infectious disease forecasts to inform communication and decision making. Challenges noted include limited software access, limited disease modeling capacity or skills, and lack of uniform reporting systems.
Through a discussion-based exercise, workshop participants shared their challenges and considerations for ASTHO and CDC to assist with disease forecasting in the island jurisdictions moving forward. Challenges include but are not limited to:
- Delays with sending samples to labs and receiving results in a timely manner. Without timely results, it is challenging to take swift action.
- Lack of staff / staff wearing many hats with limited capacity.
- In most cases, there is no specific communication plan for disease forecasting within the departments. Communication can be challenging without clear processes and channels.
- Participants noted the desire for additional disease forecasting training and opportunities for collaboration. They suggested an integrated training session with island epidemiologists and other relevant staff to enhance disease forecasting knowledge and communication, as well as strengthen collaboration.
Preparing for and Responding to Climate Events
From hurricanes to typhoons to volcanic eruptions, the island jurisdictions are no strangers to the effects of changing climate. Willliam “Brandon” Aydlett, science and operations officer at the National Weather Service, and Shelbi Davis, Senior Analyst on the Environmental Health team at ASTHO, offer the following recommendations to island jurisdictions for preparing and responding to unprecedented climate events, as discussed with workshop participants:
- Create or update standard operating procedures for various climate related responses unique to the island.
- Always prepare for a category higher storm than is expected.
- Consider conducting regular vulnerability assessments to better understand areas where the island or its people may be most susceptible to adverse health impacts from climate events.
Jurisdictions can learn from one another and find a sense of camaraderie in their preparedness efforts, much like the workshop participants. For example, one island jurisdiction noted that they currently do not have a warehouse to store equipment but are working on a plan to secure one; another jurisdiction, having recently revamped their warehouse, noted that they could assist their island neighbor in this endeavor and provide lessons learned as well as strategies to help secure a warehouse that will fit their needs.
Looking Toward the Future
Sharing lessons learned with one another and reflecting on how to apply those learnings in respective communities is crucial. Workshop participants shared their intent to share and utilize resources and information shared throughout the workshop with their leadership and team to begin implementing in their jurisdictions, as well as using strategies and skills learned to enhance partnerships. To all the participants and our Hawaiʻian hosts, we say mahalo.