Developing Partnerships to Support People with Access and Functional Needs

Community resilience supposes a paradigm shift in public health emergency preparedness from a focus on a community’s vulnerabilities to a focus on community’s strengths. Organizations that provide services to people with disabilities and other access and functional needs (DAFN) have built trust with their participants and belong to their support network in “peace times” and during emergencies and disasters, therefore increasing their individual and collective resilience. This effort presents the strategy for the development of a collaboration network between the Puerto Rico Department of Health and the organizations that serve people with access and functional needs, based on experiences learned after Hurricane Maria.