Transcript Emergency Readiness and Response: The Status of Area

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
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
Plan for Today
 Background
 Survey of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs)
 Findings
 Implications & Challenges for the Aging
Services Network
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
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
Hazards/Disaster Catalysts
 Dam Failure
 Nuclear Power Plant
 Earthquake
Emergency
 Pandemic Influenza
 Terrorism
 Thunderstorm
 Tornado
 Tsunami
 Volcano
 Winter Storm
 Fire or Wildfire
 Flood
 Hazardous Material
 Heat
 Hurricane
 Landslide
States with Federal Major Disaster Declarations, 2008



One
Two
Three
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
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)
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
What does the plan include?
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
Communications in a Disaster
Important Locations
Business Practices
Maintaining Services
Maintaining Services (cont.)
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”
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%)
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
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
Questions?
 Abigail Morgan, amorgan@n4a.org
 Robert McFalls, rmcfalls@n4a.org
 www.n4a.org/programs/annual-survey
 www.scrippsaging.org