Contingency Planning for H1N1 Virus

As you likely know, throughout the United States there is an outbreak of the H1N1 flu. (You may know it better as the "swine flu") The H1N1 flu has already been established as a pandemic and there is some likelihood that it will affect the services and supports provided by ROI. This flu could affect people supported by ROI, ROI staff, and/or family members of ROI staff. Of course, we do not know if the flu will be mild or severe, or if it will even affect ROI's ability to provide support services. We do know that the threat is real and that ROI must have a planful response.

ROI's leadership staff has developed contingency plans for a variety of scenarios. We are planning for both a minor "disruption" to our workforce and a major "disruption" to our workforce. We are obviously more concerned about a major outbreak of the H1N1 Flu (and yes, we do remember Y2K - but we were ready for that too). Much of our worst-case scenario planning involves directing staff to where they are most needed. "Most needed" means ensuring supports to the people with the highest needs. IF the availability of our staff is significantly reduced some of the people we support may go with a reduction of services or possibly even without services for a period of time. Therefore, we are asking that everyone we serve have a personal plan for how they will deal with a reduction in staffing from ROI. (Of course you or your loved one could be receiving services from organizations other than ROI and it is possible those services will also be disrupted.) For example, if we support you through our supported living program what would you do if you had limited or maybe even no staff for two weeks? If you have a loved one living in a group home, could you take him or her into your home for a couple of weeks so that we can consolidate support services for others and ensure help for those who do not have family?

There are so many different scenarios that we cannot know what will happen if the pandemic significantly interferes with ROI's support services. We do know that the more we plan the better off everyone will be. We urge you to take this time, before a possible crisis, to discuss this with your support team or the team for your loved one. We are engaging in planning for individual people we support and we are participating in planning that could affect multiple organizations at once. The more we communicate with each other, and the sooner we communicate with each other, the smoother things will go IF there is a serious challenge facing all of us.

Scott Schrum, Chief Executive Officer

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Below are links to more information on H1N1:

US Department of Health and Human Services

The Center for Disease Control

National Institute of Health