1 / 22

Emergency Readiness and Response: The Status of Area Agencies on Aging

Emergency Readiness and Response: The Status of Area Agencies on Aging. Robert L. (Bob) McFalls, M.Div. Chief Operating Officer National Association of Area Agencies on Aging AIRS Conference May 24, 2010 Rochester, New York. Acknowledgments.

joshua-cruz
Télécharger la présentation

Emergency Readiness and Response: The Status of Area Agencies on Aging

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Emergency Readiness and Response: The Status of Area Agencies on Aging Robert L. (Bob) McFalls, M.Div. Chief Operating Officer National Association of Area Agencies on Aging AIRS Conference May 24, 2010 Rochester, New York

  2. Acknowledgments Funding for this project provided through AoA grant 90AM3126 to n4a Survey development, data collection, analysis and figure development conducted by Scripps Gerontology Center For further information: Abigail Morgan, Program Manager, n4a (amorgan@n4a.org) Robert McFalls, C.O.O., n4a (rmcfalls@n4a.org) National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Washington, D.C. http://www.n4a.org/pdf/Emergency2009Final.pdf

  3. Plan for Today • Background • Survey of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) • Findings • Implications & Challenges for the Aging Services Network

  4. Older Adults and Emergencies • Disproportional death rates in Katrina (64% of deaths age 65+) • Less likely to be willing to evacuate • Adults 55+ least personally prepared for disaster • High reliance on first responders • A third of those with a disability or caring for someone with a disability would need extra help • Chronic conditions may be worsened in an emergency • Medications, medical care present challenges

  5. How do we think about disasters? • Disaster is “when routines…are seriously disrupted and when unplanned courses of action have to be undertaken to cope with the crisis” (Quarentelli, 2000). • “there is no such thing as a “natural” disaster. In every phase and aspect of a disaster…the difference between who lives and who dies is to a greater or lesser extent a social calculus “(Smith, 2006). • Preparedness prevents emergencies from becoming disasters. • AAA preparedness involves services to older adults and preparedness as a business entity

  6. Hazards/Disaster Catalysts • Dam Failure • Earthquake • Fire or Wildfire • Flood • Hazardous Material • Heat • Hurricane • Landslide • Nuclear Power Plant Emergency • Pandemic Influenza • Terrorism • Thunderstorm • Tornado • Tsunami • Volcano • Winter Storm

  7. One Two Three States with Federal Major Disaster Declarations, 2008

  8. Assessing Preparedness of AAAs • Purpose-Developed Survey • n4a Advisory Council • AAA Directors • AoA Project Managers • AoA Office of Preparedness and Response • Focus on • What programs/policies/provisions they had in place • What elements were covered in their emergency plans • Perceptions about or experience with their plans • Needs for the future

  9. AAA Survey • Internet Survey—May 2009 • All 629 AAAs invited to participate via e-mail • Survey in the field 3 weeks • 58.6% response rate (N=369)

  10. Findings—Plan Participation • Three-quarters are part of one emergency plan (local, SUA, other statewide) • About 2/3 (64.5%) are part of a local plan • About 1/3 (33.9%) are part of an SUA plan • Only 7 out of 100 (7.3 %) did not have a plan

  11. What does the plan include?

  12. Challenges for Future Plans • Collaborations with nursing homes and assisted living facilities (only about ¼ have this) • Planning for pets (less than 20% have this) • Plans for obtaining essential back-up supplies (over half, but not all have this) • Of 11 plan elements, average was 5

  13. Communications in a Disaster

  14. Important Locations

  15. Business Practices

  16. Maintaining Services

  17. Maintaining Services (cont.)

  18. Experience with Disasters • About one-quarter (90 AAAs) had been part of federally declared disaster • How well did their systems work? • Only 3 out of 90 rated their plans as “least effective” • Over half said their plans were “effective”(52.4%) • Only 2 said their plans were “most effective”

  19. Confidence Among those with No Recent Experience • How confident are you about your organization’s capacity to respond? (n=366) • Over 1 in 10 (11.5%) were not at all confident • Over half (53%) were somewhat confident • Over 1/3 were confident (28.1%) or very confident (7.4%)

  20. Challenges for the Future • AAAs would like training/technical assistance in the following: • Process for obtaining immediate $$ to respond • Best practices for different types of disasters • Establishing external communication systems • Establishing roles and responsibilities with their partners and other local organizations • Processes for tracking disaster-related expenses

  21. Strengths of AAA Preparedness • Highly involved in planning • Multiple components to their plans • Almost all (only 8 do not) review their plans at least yearly • Survey process had an educational element

  22. Questions? • Abigail Morgan, amorgan@n4a.org • Robert McFalls, rmcfalls@n4a.org • www.n4a.org/programs/annual-survey • www.scrippsaging.org

More Related