Office of Preparedness and Emergency Health Care: Emergency Human Services

When disaster strikes, the primary mission of emergency human services is to first understand what services are needed, then to ensure these services are provided quickly and efficiently to the people who need them most.

Emergency human services are an essential part of the Wisconsin Emergency Response Plan's emergency support function 6 (ESF-6).

For more information about ESF-6, visit Wisconsin Emergency Management.

What is Emergency Human Services?

Emergency means something outside a human services agencies’ typical day-to-day work and duties.

Human services is meant to include services provided by governmental and non-governmental organizations. These include programs that help survivors address unmet, disaster-caused needs and/or non-housing losses through loans and grants or through coordination of assistance from non-governmental sources.

Homeless Service Provider Forum

Created to improve collaboration among service providers, Wisconsin's Homeless Provider Forum allows providers to share and discuss guidance, best practices, and evidence-based tools to bridge the gap between homeless service systems and human service and public health systems.


Emergency Human Services resources

Responder behavioral health

Two EMTs delivering a patient to hospital with a doctor in white coat looking on

Planning for and responding to your communities and first responders' behavioral health needs after a natural disaster is a vital part of emergency response.

FAST Teams

Functional Assessment Service Team orange vest.

Functional Assessment Service Teams (FAST) help support people with access and functional needs when they are displaced from their homes due to a disaster or emergency.

Definitions

Top down perspective of a busy office with computers, coffees, papers, plants, etc

By defining terms used in emergency human services, responders and public officials can communicate more effectively during a response.

Emergency Human Services contacts

Governmental partners

Other partners

For more information:
Contact John Longo
John.Longo@dhs.wisconsin.gov
1 West Wilson St.
Madison, WI 53703

For emergency human services' materials for health professionals:

PCA Portal (Login Required)

Glossary

 
Last revised September 19, 2024