Explain two roles public health plays in preparedness activities

Format: Times New Roman, 12 pt font Single Spaced, via Canvas. Citation page will not count against the one-page memo requirement.

Submit this assignment via Canvas at the beginning of class on Wednesday, April 17th, 2019 at 11:59 PM. Contact the instructor if there are conflicts meeting this requirement (e.g. excused absence). You are expected and required to conduct your own work on this assignment. Citation pages will not count against your page count. Cite your work.

Option 1: Public Health

You are the current Public Health Commissioner for the State of Indiana, Your boss, the governor, has lost re-election to the former Mayor of Bloomington, John Mellencamp. As part of the transition to the new administration, you have been asked by Governor-elect Mellencamp’s chief of staff to provide a memo on public health preparedness. Public health preparedness focuses on natural disasters like pandemic, and manmade incidents like bioterrorism. The past administration worked to improve public health preparedness but didn’t succeed in convincing their homeland security counterparts of the value they bring to homeland security planning and response.

ACTION: In a one-page memo to the governor’s chief of staff, acting as the public health commissioner of Indiana, advise on public health preparedness in Indiana. Specifically, Mellencamp’s Chief of Staff wants to know what resources public health can provide the broader homeland security mission in the state. For this memo:

  • Explain two roles public health plays in preparedness activities, and;
  • Provide two examples of potential threats and the resources public health could use to help respond to those threats.
  • Be persuasive as to why the roles and the resources are important.