The Charles County Department of Health Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response serves the community by ensuring Charles County can prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from all-hazards, which negatively impact the health of the public. We collaborate with Maryland Department of Health Office of Preparedness and Response staff, local and regional Federal Emergency Management Agency partners, and area Healthcare Preparedness Program coalition partners, to strengthen preparedness and response capabilities.

We do this by functioning within the scope of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Response Readiness Framework.

Our key strategies are as follows:

• Prioritize a risk-based approach for all-hazards planning to improve readiness, response, and recovery capacity for existing and emerging public health threats
• Improve whole-community readiness, response, and recovery through enhanced partnerships and improved communication systems for timely situational awareness and risk communication
• Improve capacity to meet jurisdictional health equity, at-risk and public health surge management needs, as well as public health emergency administrative and budget needs.

To request a presentation on community health resilience and emergency preparedness or to request our participation in your health fair/community event, email us at ccdh.epr@maryland.gov.