Emergency Preparedness

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC) recently celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities by releasing a new version of their training course titled “Including People with Disabilities in Disaster Operations.” This course replaces the previous version of IS:368 released in 2012. The course is designed for all personnel involved in disaster operations. It provides an introductory overview of information and strategies on how to include people with disabilities during mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery efforts....

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently released the “Disaster Preparedness Guide for Older Adults,” as part of their preparedness campaign that focused on empowering older adults as they prepare for disasters. This guide is intended to support older adults and their caregivers in preparing in three straightforward steps: assessing their needs, creating a plan, and engaging their network. The guide also provides easy-to-read, user-friendly worksheets that walk individuals and caregivers through a self-assessment to identify specific needs and checklists that create a personalized plan.

The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, the Virginia Caregiver Support Program, and the Virginia Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have recently released a toolkit for caregivers of Veterans for disaster preparedness. This resource is designed to empower caregivers of Veterans, providing them with essential tools and knowledge to navigate the challenges of caregiving during disasters. With a focus on increasing caregiver confidence and preparedness, this toolkit aims to help caregivers prepare both themselves and the Veterans they care for in the face of crisis.

On Thursday, February 23, 2023 the United States Senate Finance Committee and Senate Special Aging Committee released a report that focuses on the catastrophic weather events in Texas in February 2021. The report details how widespread power outages affected nursing homes and residential facilities resulting in more than 1,400 nursing home residents being evacuated.

FEMA is seeking public feedback from partners, stakeholders, and the general public on the “Achieving Equitable Recovery: A Post Disaster Guide for Local Officials (“Equity Guide”)”, developed by the Community Assistance Branch, Interagency Coordination Division, Recovery Directorate. The comment period will end on Wednesday, March 15. This guide supports local officials in their efforts to identify needs, establish critical partnerships, leverage new opportunities, conduct strategic public engagement, and make a strong case for funding in an equitable manner. Additionally, FEMA will host a series of 60-minute webinar sessions to provide an overview of the draft guide and gather feedback from whole community partners.

This summary of research findings gathers research findings from a variety of National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research projects related to the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities. The document highlights collects projects focusing on specific research areas including community engagement, rural populations, telehealth, students, and return-to-work accommodations.

FEMA is seeking qualified individuals with expertise on the needs of people with disabilities and older adults for emergency preparedness, response, and recovery to serve on the agency’s National Advisory Council. Selected council members will guide future recommendations on topics including equity, climate, readiness and workforce. Applications are due on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

USAging and the Eldercare Locator have launched the 2021 Home for the Holidays campaign. The campaign brochure, Healthy Aging in a Pandemic World: What Older Adults and Caregivers Need to Know Now, describes the changes that families, friends and caregivers may notice among themselves and the older adults in their lives. The brochure poses questions readers should ask themselves and their loved ones as we all navigate this stage of the pandemic. It also and provides information on how older adults, caregivers and families can connect to services that agencies provide to address these changes.

COVID-19 is a long-lasting and complex disaster situation involving a public health emergency and an economic crisis, with particularly acute impacts for older adults, people with disabilities, and others with certain health conditions. States are responding with changes in policies and procedures to ensure individuals have access to public benefit programs (e.g. Medicare Savings Programs, LIS/Extra Help, SNAP, and LIHEAP). ADvancing States has a new brief highlighting where states are with benefit access and enrollment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results in the brief comes from the 2021 ADvancing States Membership Survey: COVID-19 Benefits Access and Enrollment, a follow-up to the 2020 survey.

Georgia’s Department of Human Services’ Division of Aging Services (DAS) used WellSky’s configurable platform to meet the case management, data collection, decision making, and reporting needs of the state during the pandemic. Download this case study to read about how Georgia was successful in meeting the increased needs of seniors during COVID-19.