Seasonal Flu: Impact on Nonprofits

What Nonprofits Need to Know About H1N1 Preparedness

• For your employees and volunteers

• For your clients/consumers

• For your community

The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control ("CDC") reminds us that although the H1N1 ("swine flu") virus appears no more dangerous than the normal seasonal flu, many more people than usual are expected to become ill this fall and winter because most people have no immunity to the H1N1 strain. In fact, many communities already are feeling the impact of this flu strain. The World Health Organization (WHO) identified H1N1 as a pandemic in June 2009. To date, WHO has identified over 120,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in the Americas, resulting in close to 2,500 deaths. While these numbers alone are not cause for panic, they evidence the very serious nature of this flu strain. Therefore, all nonprofits should recognize and take steps to protect their own employees, as well as those they serve.

The expectations are that H1N1 will hit communities hard and that some nonprofits will be hit harder than others. In particular, schools and nonprofits providing residential services, child care, elder care and health services will be the hardest hit. But all nonprofits need to be prepared to address the needs of their clients/consumers, plus their own employees and volunteers. Board and staff leaders must recognize that they are responsible to ensure the continuity of the nonprofit's business operations and that a serious flu outbreak could have a very serious impact on mission fulfillment.

To help you, the National Council has prepared special resources to provide your state association and your members with up-to-date information, sample policy language, and other tools to help you avoid and get through the flu season.

Announcing... The Flu Toolkit

To help your state association and to help you help YOUR members be prepared for the flu, we have added a special toolkit to our website that includes these 4 helpful resources:

1. A Flu Toolkit : Add a link from your state association website to this toolkit to provide your members with up-to-date information on all things relating to the flu.

2. A letter to employees and volunteers suitable for sharing with your members, for their use in informing their employees about the flu and urging them to stay home if they are experiencing symptoms of the flu.

3. Sample policies (contained in the Toolkit) for your state association to adopt and/or share with your members that address workplace issues impacted by severe flu outbreaks.

What should you be doing NOW to be prepared?

In addition to taking a look at the preparedness tools in the Flu Toolkit, here are critical issues for your state association to consider right now:

• How will your state association maintain regular business operations if many key employees are home with the flu or taking care of family members with the flu?

• Do you have workplace policies in place to address telecommuting, leaves of absence and sick leave, confidentiality of medical information and flu prevention?

• Perhaps your sick leave policies allow your employees to stay home from work when they are ill - but what if your employees are needed to provide care for immediate family members? If an employee stays home to be a caregiver, will their absence be covered by sick leave? Covered by family leave?

• Does the health insurance program offered by your state association cover vaccinations or over-the-counter flu medications?

• In addition to urging sick employees/volunteers to stay home, what else can your state association do to reduce the risk of the flu spreading? Some employers are urging their employees to get vaccinated. In at least one state, New York, vaccinations are required for employees in certain healthcare facilities. Many employers are pointing out to their employees and volunteers where there are opportunities for vaccinations at local health clinics or through health insurance providers. 

Sample e-Mail

• The CDC has prepared a sample e-mail you can send to your employees and members to help them be prepared for the flu.

All workplaces should be taking the following steps to prevent flu transmission:

1. Educate employees about the flu, its severity, and simple ways they can protect themselves from illness, as well as protect their family and co-workers as well as the nonprofits' clients/consumers.

2. Establish a policy that employees who are experiencing flu symptoms should stay home!

3. Encourage employees to wash hands often or use alcohol-based hand cleansers, especially after coughing or sneezing, and cover their mouths and noses with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Strategic tissue box placement is key!

4. Establish new cleaning routines to reduce the risk of transmission such as regular cleaning of surfaces such as door handles, vehicle steering-wheels, and highly-trafficked spots around the office and in all work areas.

   Most experts agree that the single most important step to take is to ensure that employees stay home if they experience flu symptoms!

A word from the National Council: Although the World Health Organization has declared a pandemic, there is no reason for panic. The H1N1 flu virus is not abnormally strong; rather, because it is a new strain of flu (you will see it referred to as "novel") people have not been exposed to it and have no immunity against it. Because our bodies are weaker, we need to rely more on our minds to fight this strain of the flu.

• For more information on products for treating flu symptoms, see the FDA's H1N1 (Swine) Flu News page

• For the most comprehensive and up to date information: Visit Flu.gov

• Questions? Contact the CDC 24 Hours/day 1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636)