Grant: Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA)

"The COVID-19 pandemic renewed attention on community-level emergency preparedness. While health systems continue to reinforce surveillance and response capacities, less is known about how community members perceive emergency preparedness in the context of public health emergencies, such as the opioid crisis. This project aims to evaluate perceptions of public health emergency preparedness within Saskatoon using a mixed methodology involving qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative interviews with 23 community leaders and a quantitative survey of approximately 440 Saskatoon residents have been collected. These will be analyzed to examine how community members and local leaders perceive health system resilience, government response, and community readiness for unexpected health emergencies. Chi-square analyses will be conducted on quantitative data, and qualitative data will be examined through a thematic analysis. The project will identify perceived gaps and opportunities for strengthening emergency preparedness at the community and health system levels. We hypothesize that community leaders may view Saskatoon's health system as unprepared for public health emergencies. We also hypothesize that government responses to the opioid crisis are insufficient. It is further hypothesized that community leaders in Saskatoon will have suggestions and insights into how the government can improve preparedness strategies."