Chatham-Kent’s Public Health Unit is looking to a future beyond COVID-19.
At a recent Health Board meeting, Director Teresa Bendo outlined the agency’s multi-year recovery framework.
Bendo says the post-pandemic plan has been in the works since last August, but was sidelined by the Omicron wave of the pandemic.
“As we are responding to COVID-19, we will also start to recover by learning from our experiences and setting a foundation to improve how we work,” Bendo says. “The recovery component is important as it will set us up for how we will eventually thrive.”
Public Health’s recovery framework, which extends beyond 2026, includes six action areas: staff wellness, organizational effectiveness, reopening, emergency management, system integration and partnerships, and effective public health practice.
“Our recovery framework will work to balance first the negative impacts of doing the work of responding to and living through the pandemic, and second to balance the resiliency of our staff, to adapt throughout the pandemic, including working in new, innovative, and collaborative ways.”
Bendo says recovery is not linear and will take time, effort, and resources to move forward towards a new normal.
“This recovery recognizes that we both individually and as an organization are nimble, we will learn and adapt as people, programs, and the organization,” Bendo explains. “Our work will look different, so how we meet our mandates will look different post-pandemic, and we will not be returning to status quo automatically. If we were to do that, that would be a disservice to this community and our clients.”
Bendo says lessons learned through the pandemic will be used to prepare for future public health events and emergencies, with the understanding that there will always be uncertainties and unknowns to throw a wrench in those plans.