LHD Description

Salt Lake County (SLCo) is the most populous county in Utah with just under 1.1 million people. SLCo comprises an area of 742 square miles and is a diverse community of 16 cities and 6 townships. The county is considered an urban/suburban community with some small rural areas in the western and southwestern areas.

The Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD) currently employs just under 375 staff, with eight locations throughout the valley. The SLCoHD received accreditation from PHAB in 2013 and recognition for Project Public Health Ready accreditation in 2018. The mission statement of the Salt Lake County Health Department reflects the goals of the department with this simple principle: To promote and protect community and environmental health.

Public Health Issue

A tragic aspect of today’s society has been demonstrated repeatedly with the increasing frequency of active shooter events (ASE’s) in the United States. The law enforcement community ranks active shooter events as among the top social concerns facing communities today. These events have occurred in many public venues. Finally, tragedy struck the public health community with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health incident that killed 14 and injured 22 others in December 2015.

Due to this critical threat the SLCoHD developed a model training and exercise program. The SLCoHD created a four-hour classroom training that was based in part on the Salt Lake City Police Department curriculum, as well as information from other agencies and sources. A full-scale exercise was then conducted in all eight locations in the valley with jurisdictional SWAT teams.

Goals and Objectives

The overarching goal and objective of this training program was to prepare staff to make good and appropriate decisions to survive an active shooter event.

The specific goals and objectives of this training program included:

Familiarize SLCoHD staff with proper Mindset and Situational awareness techniques
Describe the physiology and psychology of the flight or fight response
Define and discuss PTSD
Explain the Jeff Cooper “Mental Conditioning for Combat,” (color codes) as an awareness model
Discuss the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) Loop as it compares to the color codes
Review historical ASE cases
Show/discuss the Run-Hide-Fight video
Discuss personal and workplace safety principles
Discuss personal preparedness self-evaluation

Implementation

Twelve classroom sessions were conducted from January to June 2016. Full-scale exercises were then conducted during the last half of the year (July to December 2016). The SLCoHD partnered with law enforcement SWAT teams from six jurisdictions where department facilities are located:

Murray City
Salt Lake City (2 locations)
Sandy City
South Salt Lake
West Valley City
West Jordan City

Additionally West Jordan Fire/EMS, and Jordan Valley Hospital participated in the exercise at the West Jordan clinic location.

Results/Outcomes

Process milestones were:

Secure management support for the active shooter program
Develop didactic materials
Conduct the classroom training with all employees from January-June 2016
Partner with SWAT teams from each jurisdiction and secure their participation
Conduct the full-scale exercises at each location from July-December 2016
All staff participate in training by the end of 2016

Objectives attained

All goals and objectives were met through implementation of this model program. Two of the factors that led to success of this program were community partnerships with law enforcement, fire & EMS, and Health Department leadership support

Specific Factors Leading to Success

The factors which culminated in a successful program include:

Strong department leadership support for the program
Collaboration with partner agencies for creation of the didactic curriculum
Emergency Management staff with prior experience in law enforcement, fire service and Emergency Medical Services
Collaboration with partner agencies with the full-scale exercises
Law enforcement support of jurisdictional SWAT teams at the various SLCoHD locations in the Salt Lake Valley
Immediate feedback (HOTWASH) from health department staff, law enforcement and behavioral health to identify deficiencies and strengths of response
Post-didactic evaluations of the classroom instruction
After Action Reports generated after each clinic exercise and improvement plan criteria identified to improve the training

Public Health Impact

Feedback gathered from department staff was exceptionally positive. Staff now feel that they’re better prepared to deal with an active shooter event. Several indicated that while they were extremely apprehensive about the emotional and frightening nature of the exercise, they stated that this was by far the best training they've ever had. Working with public safety and other partners the SLCoHD effectively improved relationships, and provided them greater understanding about public health .

Website

http://slco.org/health/

BUILDING RESILENCE IN A PUBLIC HEALTH WORKFORCE: A MODEL ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING AND EXERCISE PROGRAM FOR RESPONDER SAFETY AND HEALTH

Category

Description

Winner Status