BREATHE Campaign Coordinator Presenting At The 2017 Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA

The B.R.E.A.T.H.E program offers free resources that help people relying on electrically-operated home medical equipment. Program coordinator Ronda Koch will be presenting on the “BREATHE Easier in Power Outage Emergencies” at the 2017 Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA.

Marion, Illinois, United States – April 21, 2017 /MarketersMedia/ —

The “BREATHE Easier in Power Outage Emergencies” program designed to help people who rely on electrically-operated home medical equipment offers free power outage planning resources. The southern Illinois home-grown B.R.E.A.T.H.E power outage preparedness program will be one of the topics presented at the 2017 Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA, on April 26, 2017.

This program comes with a ready-made toolkit that can be easily implemented locally, championed by home medical equipment companies (HMECs) who provide equipment and services directly to these individuals. Conversely, program planning resources can also be utilized directly by people who utilize home medical equipment, without the assistance of their HMEC provider. The toolkit includes free B.R.E.A.T.H.E resource documents for people utilizing home medical equipment, for HMECs, and emergency response agencies.

These resources are available on the “B.R.E.A.T.H.E” website at www.BreatheEasyIL.info. The program is being promoted by BRACE (Building Resilience Against Climate Effects) and the Illinois Department of Public Health in mitigating health issues in disasters, including those relating to climate change. Due to the overwhelming success of this program, Koch will be presenting to others preparedness minded individuals at the 2017 Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA.

“The ‘BREATHE Easier in Power Outage Emergencies’ website takes the guesswork out of the planning and preparedness process for residents,” says Ronda Koch, FWBCHD director of emergency preparedness and upcoming preparedness summit presenter.

Ronda Koch has 11 years of experience in public health emergency planning and currently works as the Director of Emergency Preparedness at Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department. She has a bachelor’s degree in Communication, specializing in public relations, and a master’s degree in Workforce Education – both from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Ronda brings with her a varied background that includes managing/owning her own PR/marketing and training companies, international diplomatic event planning, academic instructing, and award-winning community programming.

Power Outages are one of the most frequently occurring emergency events and can potentially impact the health of large numbers of the most vulnerable populations in every community. The B.R.E.A.T.H.E program was born out of lessons learned from the May 8, 2009 “super derecho,” a newly coined meteorological term denoting a high intensity windstorm system, an “inland hurricane” that caused major infrastructure damage and extensive power outages (over two months in some remote areas) throughout southern Illinois and in nearby states. In the storm’s aftermath, hospital emergency departments and county EMAs faced a surge of requests from people needing assistance, particularly those relying on home medical equipment powered by electricity.

Contact Info:
Name: Ronda Koch
Email: rkoch@bicountyhealth.org
Organization: Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department – Emergency Preparedness Division
Address: 8160 Express Drive, Marion, Illinois 62959
Phone: (618) 993-8111 x212

Source URL: http://marketersmedia.com/breathe-campaign-coordinator-presenting-at-the-2017-preparedness-summit-in-atlanta-ga/189173

For more information, please visit http://www.breatheeasyil.info/

Source: MarketersMedia

Release ID: 189173