Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

96 Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
include a geriatric curriculum thread to address the needs of the elderly
in acute, chronic, and community health care.
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES: LESSONS LEARNED
Community resilience is the bedrock for emergency resilience (Hutton,
2001). Resiliency is defined in the Emergency Management Framework
for Canada (Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management, 2007,
p. 12) as “the capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed
to hazards to adapt, by resisting or changing in order to reach and
maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.” Disasters affect
whole families and communities, with severe repercussions for the
disaster victims’ ability to care not only for themselves but also for each
other (Norris, 2002). Lindsey (2003) reports that health researchers have
studied a number of social, economic, and physical factors that could be
utilized for identifying those who might be vulnerable in disasters.
In this section we highlight several community-based initiatives that
exemplify this spirit of building disaster resiliency at the grassroots level.
Much of the excellent work of local municipalities and communities does
not appear in the professional or academic research literature, and so we
drew on contacts within the Canadian emergency preparedness community,
especially PHAC, to identify a sample of community initiatives for
illustrative purposes.
John Webb, director of emergency social services, Nova Scotia (interviewed
December 2, 2008)
On Monday, September 29, 2003, Hurricane Juan made landfall in
Nova Scotia and left a trail of extensive damage across the central part of
the province. Isolated older persons and persons with disabilities were
found to be particularly vulnerable as emergency responders were unable
to get to these populations as quickly as needed. As a consequence,
older persons’ groups approached the government to inquire how they
could become better prepared for future disasters. Several innovative programs
were developed and piloted with funding from the province and
nonprofit organizations. One of the first initiatives created a network of
individuals who produced a preparedness guide for persons with disabilities
and frail older persons. This was followed by a train-the-trainer program
whereby older persons and persons with disabilities were trained
to conduct a 2-hour emergency preparedness presentation for various