04/08/08

Introduction: Why are we planning?

A pandemic, an epidemic over a large area that affects a large portion of the population, is a risk that we must face as a community. Flu epidemics occur frequently, but occasionally flu, or some other contagious disease, will strike us. The Diocese has directed our parish to make basic plans to face the possibility of such an emergency, in order to better care for the people of the parish.

For a complete statement of the problem, definitions of some terms, and the diocese's complete (and detailed) plan for parishes, please see the document at http://filehosting.pbwiki.com/f/Pandemic Plan_parishes_FINAL_07_09_10.pdf (note that you will need a copy of adobe acrobat reader, if you don't already have it, which is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/).

For the purposes of this plan, it is most important to understand the phases of a pandemic:

1) Pre-Pandemic - when new types of infections have been detected but have not yet started a pandemic. At the time of this writing, we are in this phase because of the detection of Avian flu.

2) Imminent Pandemic - a pandemic has started, but has not yet affected our community

3) Pandemic Period - when the pandemic is occuring

4) Post-Pandemic Period - recovering from a pandemic

Different stages of the pandemic require different responses. The rest of this document will cover the basics of what our parish needs to do in these phases. Note that there is overlap between these activities and planning for other kinds of emergencies (for instance earthquakes here in California), so carrying through with these plans helps us with a wider range of problems than just pandemics.

Pre-Pandemic: Preparation

During the pre-pandemic phase our primary task is preparation. This preparation takes three forms

A) Planning our response to a pandemic

B) Educating leaders and the community about a pandemic and our response to it

C) Making provisions for the pandemic

Tasks to do for these areas:

Planning our response

1) Write up this parish pandemic plan

2) Write up the parish succession document, so that in case of emergency we know who should have authority

3) Decide which parish functions should continue in the case of a pandemic and write that up. Perhaps some additional functions will be added during the pandemic - prayer services for instance.

4) The council should set up communication channels, in cooperation with other groups, so that the people of the parish can be notified about what is happening.

5) Plans should be made for the care of the unusually large number of very ill parish members. Both how they can get access to sacraments and how they can make their needs known to the parish.

6) The parish maintenance (or household staff?) needs to plan changes to procedures in the case of a pandemic.

7) Communication channels should be tested with a drill.

Educating leaders and the community

1) Make sure the parish council understands what is involved in a pandemic

2) The parish council should contact the different groups around the parish and communicate that pandemic planning is happening

3) Leaders in each of the groups should learn about pandemics, and what our parish plans to do.

4) The different groups should make simple plans about what their group should do in case of a pandemic - at the least what functions they will continue (or not) at the time of a pandemic.

5) Education should be offered to the people of the parish

6) Hold an education session for the Parish council to see the "Preparing for Pandemic video"

7) Hold an education session for leaders of the parish ministries to see the "Preparing for Pandemic video" and make educational materials available

8) Have a "Pandemic Sunday" in the Spring of '08 - at this time we'll tell the parish about the problem, the plan, and make educational materials available

9) Repeat the "Pandemic Sunday" message in the Fall of '08, and at that time show the "Preparing for Pandemic" video to parishioners

Making provisions for the pandemic

1) Informational documents, such as handouts, or email documents, should be prepared as needed to tell people about planned changes to parish activities.

a) for instance, write the announcement about the curtailment of certain meetings and masses

b) for instance, write the document (or get one from the diocese) stating liturgical changes during the pandemic

2) Stockpiling of food, as needed to care for parish members too sick to get critical supplies

3) Stockpiling of cleaning and health supplies (masks, etc) as needed for the parish staff.

Imminent Pandemic - last minute actions

A pandemic is coming - what now?

1) Communicate to the parish which functions will continue - announcements at mass & blog

2) Remind the parish how they can communicate back to the rest of the parish

3) Communicate the changes to liturgical functions

4) Make sure that all critical members of the staff and leadership are in contact

5) Initiate extra health measures in the physical space of the church.

6) Ensure that people responsible for distributing food and health supplies are ready.

7) Take note of any last minute communications from the public health authorities and pass that on to the parish.

8) If additional people need to be authorized to disburse funds (write checks or so on) do so now.

Pandemic Period - during the pandemic

This period starts when it is communicated by the diocese or by civil authorities. During the pandemic period it is important to care for the sick and to take measures to ensure that more people don't become ill.

1) Stop functions that were planned to stop.

2) Implement liturgical changes.

3) Initiate functions that were planned to occur in case of pandemic

4) Communicate to the parish changes in status of leadership personnel. If a priest or staff member becomes too ill to help out they should be allowed to rest, and parish members should know where else to turn.

5) Distribute supplies as needed

6) Communicate critical changes to the diocese, for instance the illness of staff members.

Post-Pandemic - after the pandemic

1) Communicate to the parish that the pandemic is over

2) Restart stopped functions

3) Inform the parish of liturgical changes (going back to what is normal)

4) Report the effects of the pandemic, on the parish, to the diocese

Appendix A - Succession plan

In normal operations, ultimate responsibility for making decisions about parish functions is the Pastor's. However, in the case of a pandemic the pastor may become disable, along with many other members of the staff and parish in general. In order to provide for smooth and responsible decision-making in the case of a pandemic (or other emergency) we have a succession plan - who takes over from who in case of sickness or death. This taking-over of authority is intended to be temporary until normal procedures are once again in place.

For the parish of St. Athanasius, with the staff of Spring '08, the succession plan looks like:

Pastor (Fr. Casey)

Other priest (Fr. Fitzpatrick)

Deacon (Leonel Mancilla)

Director Hispanic Ministry (Rosa Maria Mancilla)

Pastoral Associate (Mike Cavera)

Catechetical Ministry (Loretta Fennell)

Administrative assistant (Jenniffer Garlit)

Other important responsible individuals are the head of the finance committee (Matt Caligaris) and the chair of the parish council (Oscar Maldonado).

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