. Fatemeh Rezaei; . Mahmoud Keyvanara; . Mohammad H Yarmohammadian
Volume 12, Issue 9 , October 2022, , Pages 1-9
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There have been criticisms that local authorities develop disaster planningindependently, which led to less sensitiveness and responsibility of community‑basedorganizations ...
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BACKGROUND: There have been criticisms that local authorities develop disaster planningindependently, which led to less sensitiveness and responsibility of community‑basedorganizations (CBOs). Disasters planning should incorporate into CBOs’ management processes.This study aims to set goals of a community‑based plan based on preparedness capacities thatCBOs need to have in the COVID‑19 pandemic.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross‑sectional study used a prevalidated and reliablequestionnaire assessing (CBOs). The tool assesses preparedness in the field of planning, training,and infrastructure. Forty CBOs met the inclusion criteria as assisting or cooperating agencies duringthe COVID‑19 pandemic. Then, key informants, who simultaneously have been working in the healthsystem and CBOs, prioritized low‑scale items that have shown capacity gaps according to effectson the vulnerable group, sustainability, and capability of the health system. Descriptive statisticsperformed using SPSS18 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA).RESULTS: The results showed that the preparedness of CBOs was weak in the field of planning,training, and infrastructure. Besides, overlaps of CBOs’ resources and covering the clients’ medicalneeds in the COVID‑19 pandemic were the most priority that needs to be intervened.CONCLUSION: Providing medical needs by CBOs require legal legitimacy assigned by healthauthority, especially in epidemic‑prone diseases. In addition, assigning a coordinator to set a prioritylist and mutual agreements authoried by health departments can solve the problem of overlappedresources. Therefore, functional roles of CBOs in the pandemic should focus mostly on resourceallocation and the medical needs of clients to set goals and functional objectives.
