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The Miami-Dade County Health Department (M-DCHD) is frequently confronted with communicable disease emergencies. The response to communicable disease emergencies and follow-up surveillance activities are essential to the control of disease The Community Health Action Team (CHAT) links and collaborates with programs within the M-DCHD (Special Immunizations Program, Office of Epidemiology, Office of Chronic Disease Prevention, Environmental Health, etc.), Community and Private agencies, Schools and Day-care centers. The CHAT teams provide rapid response at times of outbreaks or emergencies in the community. The CHAT teams (nurses and health services representatives) represent a team approach to assess, educate, refer, and follow-up to address the needs of the community.
With the threat of bio-terrorism, and natural disasters, the CHAT teams provide support to the Bio-Terrorism Management Response Team of the M-DCHD.
When the teams are not responding to public health emergencies and outbreaks, they collaborate with various community agencies and partners for health fairs, health promotions, screenings, and safety activities. This affords the teams a great opportunity to educate the public. On site school immunization clinics are held to get students into compliance to prevent exclusion from school.
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