OCCHD Community Assessment for Preparedness

The Oklahoma City-County Health Department will be performing a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER). Essentially a CASPER is a fancy needs assessment which can be modified for a pre- or post- disaster timeframe. The goal of this CASPER is to determine what gaps in disaster preparedness might exist and to measure the level of preparedness within our community’s population. This assessment uses special statistical methods to allow a relatively small sample to accurately represent a large population. Besides tornados, other events we need to prepare for are earthquakes, floods, and extreme drought (just to name a few). By understanding the needs of our population (in relation to disaster planning), better decisions can be made to increase our community’s disaster preparedness level.

Teams of volunteers will go out in groups of two, or more, to the community (to pre-determined specific neighborhoods) and collect survey responses from the residents. Survey questions range from household size, to disaster event planning, to special population needs questions. The responses are completely voluntary and no personal information is recorded.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)