Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has been chosen to participate in a pilot program to better identify and help those with intellectual and developmental disabilities during future public health emergencies. Nebraska DHHS is one of 8 public service institutions chosen to take part in this program.
This program works with the CDC to build public health capacity to monitor the health and well-being of people with disabilities before, during, and after public health emergencies. This will be done through testing, and disseminating a syndromic surveillance definition that can be used to identify those with disabilities during an emergency.
This information will provide public health officials with a timely system for detecting, understanding, and monitoring health events. Public health will then be able to detect unusual levels of illness to see whether responses are warranted. This data will serve and an early warning system for public health concerns.
The COVID-19 pandemic shed a light nationwide on the lack of data available to detect, understand, and monitor health events among people living with disabilities.
“DHHS continues to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and is preparing and planning for the next public health emergency to ensure we can respond in the most effective way possible to protect all Nebraskans,” said DHHS CEO Dannette R Smith.
“This pilot program will have a lasting impact on national, state, and local capacity to respond, detect, understand, and monitor health events among people with disabilities during public health emergencies,” said Developmental Division Director Tony Green. “I am proud the State of Nebraska is at the forefront of this important program.”