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- EP HCC Newsletter - July 2025
EP HCC Newsletter - July 2025
Nevada County Emergency Preparedness - Health Care Coalition
Emergency Preparedness
Health Care Coalition Newsletter
July 2025 | Issue #4
What's Inside:
News from the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Program
July has moved fast, and we’re wondering where the time has gone! The summer always feels like it goes by quickly - spending time with family, staying cool by the pool or river or just soaking in the absolutely perfect weather we’ve had this summer. We have been fortunate to have a little time to relax a bit and enjoy our beautiful county in between our busy preparedness days!
It’s all about collaboration!
We were lucky enough to visit and collaborate with various programs in our Public Health Department this month! It’s so refreshing to visit with or work alongside your colleagues from other programs and/or departments. We know how easy it is to get siloed in the work we do.

Joe Ferrell, Public Health Nurse and Paula Osborn, Sr. Health Technician - Immunization Program - North San Juan Food Bank Distribution -
We were invited to join an outreach event put on by our amazing Immunization Program. The team set up our Public Health Mobile Health Unit at the Food Bank’s North San Juan distribution day. Joe and Paula were able to chat with community members as they waited in line and distribute information about their program and how they can help families be ready for school! A few visitors came by for vaccinations - and left with smiles and lollipops!
As we move towards our busy flu season, we’ve been planning our mass vaccination clinic in partnership with this amazing team - and learning how each team conducts their outreach and daily operations is important to us all!
We were also able to join another division in Public Health, the Health and Wellness team, for their annual retreat! This retreat is a chance for their team to come together and share wins for the past year and reflect on future goals. The PHEP team was able to give a short talk on being prepared at work (and home) for emergencies. Special shoutout to Nevada County OES for giving us resources to share with their team!
FEMA Training
Because we’re always learning - Tara, our HPP Coordinator, signed up for a weeklong FEMA training that focused on improving partnerships to have more effective and coordinated preparedness and response efforts in public health emergencies. If you’ve never taken PER410, you should take a look and see if it would be beneficial to add. You can find more information here.
One main point that was taken away from this training was the call to support staff during and after a response to an emergency event. The focus was on mental health support and setting our response teams up for success by giving them tools ahead of time to process any stress, anxiety or grief that inevitably comes with our jobs.
Some trainings that were discussed and shared by other participants were:
Psychological First Aid - check out the resource here —> Psychological First Aid: Field Operations Guide - PTSD: National Center for PTSD
Just in Time - check out the resource here —> "Just in Time" Web-based Training | CCP Toolkit | SAMHSA
There’s bound to be more out there! Do any of your organizations have resources that you use to support your teams during high stress events? Please feel free to share those with us, and we’ll forward on to the coalition.
Coalition News
Cybersecurity - the never-ending threat!
Just when you thought we were done with cybersecurity - we’ve come to you for MORE information! The PHEP team has put together a great cyber threat virtual tabletop exercise that is comprised of three short surveys. Brett, our awesome PHEP analyst, has already sent out survey #1 and survey #2. If you need to catch up, feel free to go back and start from survey #1.
As Brett mentioned in his email out to the coalition, we're asking our coalition partners to complete this series of brief cybersecurity preparedness surveys. The PHEP team is treating this as a hybrid of a virtual exercise and survey. This exercise is important for us all to be better informed and prepared for a cyber event. A few things to note:
This is for our coalition's continuity planning
There are no wrong answers and all info stays in-house
Your input is incredibly valuable and greatly appreciated!!
Feel free to forward the survey series to any staff you would like to complete this survey as well. The PHEP team thanks you all in advice for your support for this activity!
Smoke-related preparedness
Many of you already have systems in place to address the need for clean air spaces, especially when we have smoke from a nearby wildfire moving into our county. We are all prepared (well, prepared as we can be) for wildfires, evacuations and keeping our community informed, but what about smoke and the effect it has on the health of the people you serve?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wildfire and Smoke Guidelines
PHEP has been supporting our Public Health team with focusing on heat and smoke related messaging and plans, recently - and has some great resources that might be helpful for your organizations as you think about heat-health and wildfire smoke action planning:
Americares, a health-focused relief and development organization has developed some climate action tools: Wildfire Smoke and Heat-Health Action Plans | Americares
CDC: resources and guidelines to share with your team: Safety Guidelines: Wildfires and Wildfire Smoke | Wildfires | CDC
Partner Spotlight
This month we’d like to spotlight a partner that has a multi-faceted approach to supporting the community - from hospice care, to supporting caregivers and volunteers, to running a local thrift store. Meet some of the team at Foothills Compassionate Care!

Elizabeth Dreher - Community Relations Manager, Stever Pendergast - Facilities Maintenance Coordinator, and Kimberly Frandsen - Human Resources Director
Preparedness looks different for different organizations - sometimes that looks like supporting folks in-house and other times that means we need to think outside the box to support our clients and community.
That’s just what the team over at Foothills Compassionate Care is doing! Much of the support they give is outside of their actual office building - they are out in the community, supporting families in their homes. This makes for a unique situation when an emergency arises.
Aside from keeping the building safe and in working order, Steve, the team’s Facilities Maintenance Coordinator, focuses on keeping the team informed of weather or emergency events that might affect the work they do. Steve, along with Elizabeth and Kimberly, do a great job at keeping the organization’s safety plans up-to- date and preparing the organization for whatever weather or emergency event Nevada County throws at them!
The safety team (comprised of various staff) has built a great system for their team and uses creative ways to keep their patients informed and supported during disasters. Preparation for their staff looks like a fully informed, disaster educated team that has support systems in place.
Each staff is part of an all-staff alert system (usually by text) that informs staff of impending events, and any directives needed to keep them and their patients safe. Each staff member is given a folder that outlines the emergency plans, and who their emergency contacts are within the organization - they keep this with them when they’re out traveling to patients. Additionally, the HR team sends out safety surveys to staff to get feedback on topics such as facility safety, fire and emergency preparedness and ergonomics in the workplace.
For their patients - emergency prep starts on the day of admission. During intake of a new patient, staff identify the patient’s evacuation zone and include that in their file. Based on how much support the patient might need, staff decide what other systems need to be put into place (access to a generator, alternative cooling/heat source, evacuation routes).
In an emergency that might affect access or power to the office, most staff have the option to telework, so they can still support their patients from home during events. The team tells us that sometimes they get creative in helping their patients through these events, but with a team so dedicated and informed, they’re ready!
The Foothills team is thoughtful in their approach to keep all staff, volunteers and patients safe during emergency events - and we’re lucky to have them as a partner in our coalition!
Email us with your story or your nomination of a partner organization - [email protected] |
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Future Happenings
EP HCC Cybersecurity Virtual TTX: happening NOW - reach out with any questions!
EP HCC Partner Meeting: August 28, 1 - 3 pm
Do you have a preparedness event that you’d like to share with the coalition? Just send us a quick email and we’ll share it in our next newsletter: [email protected]