Health & Social Services Recovery Support Function

• Assess and monitor public health, disease surveillance, and injury prevention of the impacted community to identify and mitigate health problems
  
• Develop and implement risk communications and public health messaging for disasters
  
• Provide technical assistance (instructional staff, curriculum development experts, subject matter experts, professional staff) for site-specific hazard awareness related to recovery
  

• Assess and monitor disaster-related impacts on health care facilities (hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, assisted living centers, blood banks, dialysis centers, substance abuse treatment facilities, poison control centers, medical and dental offices)
• Prioritize needs, identify best practices, and provide technical assistance
  

• Assess disaster-related structural, functional, and operational impacts to behavioral health facilities and programs
  
• Assess needs, provide technical assistance, and identify best practices, including those for prevention
  
• Connect practitioners with resources
  
• Develop strategies, including population-based strategies, to address ongoing behavioral health assessment, surveillance, and long-term treatment needs
  
• Develop and disseminate consistent messaging and guidance concerning stress management and mitigation strategies
  

• Assess the environment to determine if post-disaster conditions may cause adverse public health effects
• Provide technical assistance (scientific data and models) and environmental health training
  

• Monitor and assess food supply networks to ensure food safety
• Provide technical assistance to FDA-regulated biologics, device, drug, animal feed, and human food establishments to protect public health

• Determine which groups of responders should be included in a health care or disease registry program to monitor long-term physical and behavioral health
• Establish and implement long-term tracking of responder health

• Assess disaster-related structural, functional, and operational impacts to social services facilities (community congregate care, childcare provider facilities, Head Start centers, senior centers, homeless shelters) and programs (domestic violence services, child support enforcement, foster care, family support programs)
• Assess and monitor disaster-related impacts to at-risk individuals (children, older adults, pregnant women, individuals experiencing homelessness, people living with disabilities and others who may have additional access and functional needs, people with pre-existing mental disorders, people with limited English proficiency, other underserved populations)
• Identify disaster-related social services needs that cannot be met with community resources due to the disaster
• Provide technical assistance in assessing the healthcare services needs of disaster-impacted individuals and the applicability of Federal programs’ flexibilities and waivers that may be strategically leveraged to enhance the state’s capacity to meet those needs

• Implement coordinated system(s) for referral of individuals and families with unmet disaster-related needs to appropriate social services and strategically leverage Federal social services programs to mitigate social disruption and transition individuals and families back to self-sufficiency
  
• Facilitate the delivery of federally supported Disaster Case Management, either through the FEMA DCM State Grant, ACF-led Immediate Disaster Case Management Program, or other applicable mechanisms
  

• Support the restoration of the educational environment for students and staff
• Coordinate health and social services delivered through state or tribal liaisons to support impacted schools
• Support state, territorial, tribal, or local government efforts to coordinate enrollment, educational services, and health and social services for students who are homeless and/or displaced prior to, or as a result of, the disaster
  

• maintaining situational awareness to identify and mitigate potential recovery
  
• leveraging response, emergency protection measures, and hazard mitigation resources to expedite recovery
  
• planning for the transition from response to recovery into preparedness and operational plans, in close collaboration with Emergency Support Functions #3, #6, #8 and #11
  
• incorporating planning for the transition from post-incident recovery operations back to a steady state into preparedness and operational plans
  
• developing strategies to address recovery issues for health, behavioral health, and social services – particularly the needs of response and recovery workers, children, seniors, people living with disabilities, people with functional needs, people from diverse cultural origins, people with limited English proficiency, and underserved populations
  
• incorporating the principles of sustainability, resilience, and mitigation into preparedness and operational plans
  

• providing technical assistance in the form of impact analyses and supporting recovery planning of public health, health care, and human services infrastructure
  
• conducting HHS RSF assessments with primary agencies
  
• identifying and coordinating HHS RSF-specific missions with primary agencies
  
• coordinating the deployment of the primary and supporting departments and agencies in support of the HHS RSF mission, as appropriate (when activated by the FDRC)
  
• establishing communication and information-sharing forum(s) for HHS RSF stakeholders with the state and community
• coordinating and leveraging applicable Federal resources for health and social services
• developing and implementing a plan to transition from Federal HHS recovery operations back to a steady state
• identifying and coordinating with other local, state, tribal, territorial, and Federal partners to assess food, animal, air, and water conditions to ensure safety
• evaluating the effectiveness of Federal HHS recovery effort
  

The Coordinating Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, provides leadership, coordination, and oversight. The Coordinating Agency ensures ongoing communication and coordination between the primary agencies and support organizations and between the Federal agencies and corresponding local, state, tribal, territorial, insular area authorities, and nonprofit and private sector organizations.

• Department of Health and Human Services

A Primary Agency is a Federal agency with specific authorities, roles, resources, or capabilities necessary for accomplishing the mission.

• Corporation for National and Community Service
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Homeland Security: Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Department of Homeland Security: National Protection and Programs Directorate
• Department of Homeland Security: Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Department of Interior
• Department of Justice
• Department of Labor
• Environmental Protection Agency
  

Support Organizations are those entities with specific capabilities or resources that support the Coordinating and Primary Agencies.

• American Red Cross
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Educationli>
• Department of Transportation
• Department of Treasury
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• National Organizations Active in Disasters
• Small Business Administration