On July 18, 2019, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Inc. Tribal Epidemiology Center (ITCA TEC) partnered with the Cocopah Indian Tribe to conduct a modified Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) workshop. This pilot workshop was the first of its kind for the Cocopah Tribe and the ITCA TEC. The workshop was conducted in a modified form to take into account the relevant aspects of responding to an emergency on the Cocopah Indian Tribe Reservation. The main themes addressed in the workshop were: community orientation and safety information, survey design in Epi Info and Excel, database construction and basic reports in Epi Info and Excel, interviewing techniques and sensitivity, interview and survey completion live practice and data entry, analysis, and report construction live practice.

This workshop provided a forum for the emergency response partners in Yuma County, such as San Luis Walk-In Clinic, Regional Center for Border Health, Cocopah Environmental Protection Office, Cocopah Tribal Health Maintenance program, Cocopah Police Department, Cocopah Office of Emergency Management, Indian Health Service Fort Yuma Service Unit, Yuma County Public Health Services District, Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department, and Arizona Complete Health. During this workshop, the emergency response partners collaborated, and shared experiences and points of view in order to effectively respond to public health emergencies. Using the modified CASPER questionnaire as a framework, various tips in designing a survey questionnaire and interviewing were discussed and shared among the workshop participants.

 

Eighty seven percent of the workshop participants found the workshop useful to their work responsibilities. Building on the workshop experiences, the emergency response partners are better prepared to collaborate and respond to public health emergencies.

 

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Figure 1. Cocopah Indian Tribe Office of Emergency Management Manager welcoming the workshop participants.

Figure 2. An example of inventorying available resources and descriptions from emergency response partners related to a public health emergency in Yuma County.

Figure 3. Workshop participants discussing necessary data collection and interviewing techniques and sensitivity within a public health emergency response setting.