Public health specializations and education needs to support homeland security

Abstract

Understanding and identifying critical public health human capital needs and their appropriate knowledge base for homeland security is necessary to help our Nation to prepare for and respond to acts of terrorism and natural disasters. Understanding what deficiencies exist by specializations and identifying an appropriate knowledge base for these individuals is necessary to meet the future force requirements to support homeland security. Personal interviews were conducted with 24 individuals throughout Tennessee and various components of the federal government. This was done to discern what these professionals believe are the necessary specializations to respond to homeland security mandates and the education these specialists needed to discharge their duties. For this study, public health was defined as: any individuals responsible for safeguarding and enhancing the health of the community in relation to homeland security. This is consistent with Dennis Raphaelâ s definition which defined public health as â the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting the health of the population through organized efforts of societyâ 1. The results of this study may help aid policymakers to attract, train, retrain and retain the appropriate cadre of professionals necessary to support the public health mission relating to homeland security.