Emergency Preparedness Week 2023

This year, Emergency Preparedness Week takes place from May 7-13, with the theme: Be Prepared. Know Your Risks. The theme is meant to encourage Canadians to understand the risks in their area and learn what actions they can take to protect themselves and their families. Everyone has a role to play in an emergency. Individuals, communities and organizations can all be involved in emergency preparedness.

Emergency Preparedness at Public Health Ontario

Public health emergency preparedness requires planning and intervention activities to prevent, respond to and recover from incidents and emergencies that may put the health of Ontarians at risk. For example, these incidents and emergencies can range from communicable disease outbreaks and pandemics, to extreme weather events, to public mass gatherings.

Public Health Ontario (PHO) plays an active role in emergency preparedness and response by supporting the Ministry of Health, local public health units, and other health care organizations and practitioners in response to potential and actual incidents and emergencies. PHO’s role in emergency preparedness and response includes:

• Providing our partners with scientific and technical information and advice to inform their decision-making and actions
• Supporting capacity-building and best practices
• Providing operational support to provincial and regional partners
• Ensuring the efficacy and accuracy of PHO’s laboratory services

Evaluation is also an important part of public health emergency preparedness planning, response and recovery.  Assessment activities give people an opportunity to identify and reflect on lessons learned and what can be improved for next time. These activities include in-action reviews, debriefs and after action reviews. Visit PHO’s Emergency Preparedness page to learn more about PHO’s resources and services.