Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

260 Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
PROBLEM-SOLVING SIMULATIONS:
DISASTER PREP SCENARIOS
Overview
The following section presents a sample problem-solving simulation
for disaster preparedness. The section also includes a guide for team
leaders or facilitators to illustrate useful methods for implementing the
simulations with the team. The Disaster Prep Scenarios are role-playing
exercises that are easy to use by the interdisciplinary treatment team and
easy to facilitate. Each Disaster Prep Scenario takes approximately 45 minutes
to 1 hour and should be followed by a discussion period of at least
30 minutes.
The Disaster Prep Scenarios are problem-solving exercises that represent
common clinical management challenges experienced during disasters
by health care staff and teams in long-term-care facilities and
community-based services. The scenarios are easily adapted for use by the
interdisciplinary team during team meetings. Each scenario includes roles
for older residents/patients, family members or significant others, and interdisciplinary
team members. The format of the Disaster Prep Scenarios
is flexible, so one group of interdisciplinary team members can role-play
while the remaining team members observe or numerous groups of team
members can role-play the Disaster Prep Scenarios simultaneously.
Procedures
Participants are divided into teams of as many members as are indicated
in each script. Each team sits in a circle and a bag of role cards is
passed around to all members. The team leader/facilitator instructs each
team member to pick a role card at random. The cards identify the character
each team member will role-play in the exercise and the specific concerns
or issues of that character. Participants are instructed not to tell
their character’s private information to the other people in the group; they
will reveal their hidden agendas during the discussion period after the
role-play.
The team members are given 5 minutes to read their role cards silently
and a few minutes to introduce themselves to each other. Subsequently,
the team leader/facilitator hands a script to the participants. The script
tells the disaster story the participants will enact during the role-play. The
team leader/facilitator reads the script out loud while the team members