How do I prepare for a pandemic outbreak?

BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

How Should I Plan For a Pandemic?

In order to properly prepare for a pandemic, you will want to have both a knowledge of skills and the resources necessary to sustain yourself, your family, and anyone else you have close to you. Although it can seem overwhelming to know where to begin, the good news is that a lot of preparing for a pandemic can also overlap with other forms of emergency preparation. 

What Can I Do Personally To Prepare For a Pandemic?

• You will first want to start by training your mind to handle stress healthily. One of the most important things you can do for yourself in times of collective, global unrest is to personally be in a space to be able to keep calm and manage your emotions and stress. With this, you will be able to think clearly, create plans, be resourceful, and make good decisions. In order to do this, try to increase your coping skills. Practice in your daily life with small stressors. Identify things that increase and decrease your anxiety. Altogether, work daily for your mental health.
• Next, prepare yourself physically. Exercise often, eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and learn to be flexible with what you eat and drink.
• Next, you will want to have enough water and food to sustain you and your family in the case that stores did close during a pandemic. Since water is a precious commodity in a time of any emergency, have clean water stored. In addition, have a water filter on hand. In case your water supply was to run out, you will want to be able to access water in any number of ways, including through filtration or purification. From here, build your food supply. You will want to have stored enough food for everyone in your family for at least one month, and more if you have the resources and space. Store nutrient-dense food that can give energy to everyone in your family.
• Next, prepare yourself financially. Create a savings account specifically for “a rainy day,” putting 5-10% of all of your earnings. Start now and decide not to dip into this fund unless there is truly an emergency, like a pandemic. In times of global upheaval, you may be out of a job. It may become difficult to make house payments. You may not be able to keep your business afloat. In addition to this saving account, you will want to have a few hundred dollars worth of small bills in a safe place in your home.
• Have toiletries, soap, hand sanitizer, a hearty first-aid kit, medical masks, and other preventive measures on hand.
• Find a local doctor who you know and trust. In times of a pandemic, there will be massive amounts of information in the media. Knowing where to find information and from what sources can save you headaches and stress.
• Finally, check the CDC website often for up-to-date information.

READ MORE: What Can I Do To Prevent The Coronavirus Disease At Home?

What Can I Do For My Neighbors During A Pandemic?

The best thing that you can do for those around you in a pandemic is to follow the guidelines of the CDC. If the CDC requests that you stay away from others, please do so. There are still ways to connect and help, such as sharing your food and supplies, offering financial support, and offering whatever unique talents and skills you have. Just make sure that whatever you do, you do it from a safe distance. Sometimes we miss the point of preparedness in the midst of stress and fatigue. The point is not every-man-for-himself. The point is that we do everything in our power to prepare for ourselves and those around us so that we can be in a position to assist the most vulnerable in our communities.

Why Should I Practice Good Health Habits Now?

The health of our bodies and minds are strongly linked. Being able to think clearly and calmly, stay on top of your mental health, and fight disease can be linked to the healthy habits you have created for yourself. To begin, incorporate movement into your day for 30 minutes a day, 5 times per week. This has been proven to help fight mental and physical diseases. Next, increase eating foods that boost your immunity and help you feel clear, energized, and happy. Incorporate healthy mental habits, such as meditation in any form, spirituality, and stress-management.

READ MORE: Should I Wash My Hands Or Use Hand Sanitizer?

How Can I Help When I Can’t Physically Be There?

Start by asking yourself what skills you have. Are you a painter? You can paint something for someone. Are you a writer? Write encouraging notes to friends. Are you a medical professional? Offer information to those around you. Can you create music? Sing from a distance or online to people who are lonely. You can make goals to send encouragement, Facetime, offer your skills or product for a reduced price if possible, and spread hope in any number of creative ways.

How Do I Create An Emergency Pandemic Plan?

As mentioned above, during a pandemic, the best plan that you can have is to be mentally, emotionally, financially, and physically in a place to stay calm and hopeful. From here, listen to the guidelines by officials in your country. From here, have a family-wide plan, often called a protocol, that has been pre-discussed and decided upon, on what you will collectively do to get through the pandemic. Answer questions for yourself and your family like: How will we get groceries? What will we do to sustain ourselves financially? What should we do if stores close down? Where will we meet if we are out of power? Once you have these decisions made and written down on paper, practice them with your family. Get it into their heads so everyone knows exactly what to do, even if they don’t have that paper next to them when the time comes to follow the plan.

How Can I Prepare For Temporary School Closures?

Although nothing can fully prepare us for this, a few things can help.

• Be involved in what your child is learning at school. Help with homework, or at the very least, take note of what your child is covering in each class.
• Continue your own learning, alongside your child. The new form of long division may be hard, but you can learn it together!
• Have a relationship with your child’s teachers and administrators.
• Know specifically where to find streamlined information for your child’s school.
• If at all possible, make sure you have a computer at home. Chances are, schools will be taught using Google Classroom or some other form of a digital platform that allows teachers to communicate with their students.

READ MORE: What I Wish I’d Known Before The Coronavirus

How Can I Prepare for Changes at The Workplace?

The best thing to do to prepare for changes in the workplace is to have a small emergency fund because your work will likely be affected during a pandemic. The next best thing is to simply think ahead. Ask yourself the question: what will I do if I were to suddenly have no income by my traditional job? Be creative with your answers. What could you do to support yourself? How would you handle the stress? What are the ways that you could offer your services virtually? If a pandemic happens, there will be hundreds of thousands of businesses that won’t be able to sustain themselves during a lockdown. If that happens, millions of people will lose their jobs You either need to have a side-hustle with a decent amount of income that won’t be affected by e-commerce shutting down a good savings account or some other plan to take care of your family in case this emergency becomes reality. 

How Do I Plan For a Potential Quarantine?

This, more than anything, is where mental practice, strength, and stress-management comes in. You will need to not only have the resources and skills necessary for survival, but you will also need the mental strength and stamina to survive isolation. This is not easy. Specifically, if you struggle with mental illness, this can be particularly dangerous and challenging. Give yourself permission to just survive, if that’s what you need to do. You don’t need to be creative or resourceful if your mental health is suffering. If it helps you to make goals, increase creativity, exercise indoors, and watch movies with your family, do so. Make sure to take time each day to practice mindfulness, through apps such as Headspace and Ten Percent Happier. As humans, we are hard-wired for connection, and quarantine can make this difficult. Recognize this, give yourself space to struggle, and do what is in your power to manage your stress.

DURING THE PANDEMIC

First and foremost, do your part to take action, helping to slow the spread of the illness. Follow the guidelines set out by medical professionals. It is their job to study and understand the virus, and it is your job to trust their research. Check the new, updated guidelines every day and adjust your activities accordingly. If the CDC asks us not to attend large gatherings, do not attend large gatherings. Do your best to make considerate, conscious decisions. Next, put your emergency plan into action, if it reaches that point. Stay calm. Know that you have planned for this. Finally, adjust accordingly as you may need. Perhaps you planned to go to the grocery store every week, but different stores are doing pick-up. Perhaps you need to order off of Amazon. Perhaps Amazon isn’t functioning and you need to eat your food storage. Every situation can be different, and your emergency plan needs to be flexible enough to account for those differences. 

AFTER THE PANDEMIC

After the pandemic passes, evaluate the effectiveness of your emergency plan.  Ask yourself and your family what went well and what you would do differently next time. Adjust your future pandemic emergency-plan with what you have learned, and carry on. *This site does not provide medical advice. I am not a doctor and all content on this site is of my own opinion. Please refer to your doctor or the official CDC website for more accurate information about this topic.