Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

354 Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
Sixty-nine percent of residents in long-term-care facilities have Alzheimer’s
or some other form of dementia. Further, only 5.2% of all
nursing home beds are part of special dementia care units (Alzheimer’s
Association, 2008). This means that even if a facility does not specifically
cater to persons with dementia, it is essential that they consider this population
in their disaster plans.
Because administrators and staff are responsible for the safety and
well-being of large groups of people during a disaster, it is even more important
that all staff, including nonclinical care staff, have some knowledge
and awareness of how to work with people with dementia. It may be that
the facility needs to call on office, housekeeping, or janitorial staff for help
during an emergency. Providing basic training on Alzheimer’s disease and
other dementias to all staff can help prepare the facility for a disaster and
can lessen the impact of the disaster for residents with dementia. Basic
training consists of recognizing dementia, the stages of dementia, appropriate
communication and interventions, and managing inappropriate responses.
Table 17.1 provides some advance-planning recommendations
that can be helpful in advance of a disaster.
Person-Centered Care
An important aspect of quality of life as well as quality care for the person
with dementia is called person-centered care . This means getting to know
the residents’ personalities along with their preferences and ways of interacting.
It also means fostering the choice and choosing process in the
caregiving setting to promote quality of life. Findings suggest that personcentered
care enhances quality of life particularly when the choice and
choosing process is incorporated in care (Gurland & Gurland, 2008a,
2008b; Gurland, Gurland, Mitty, & Toner, 2009). Furthermore, quality of
life may be facilitated particularly well for those with Alzheimer’s disease
through the use of reliable and valid quality of life assessment tools (Barrett
& Gurland, 2001; Barrett, Gurland, Chin, & Rattau, 2000; Gurland &
Katz, 2006).
During a disaster, nonclinical care staff may not know personally the
residents who are assigned to their care; the development of a personal
information form for each resident can be helpful. This form can be
placed in an easily accessible place inside a closet door or attached to a
folder in the resident’s room. A nonclinical care staff member can quickly
read the form and gain insight into how best to work with the particular
resident. Information on the form could include: what the resident likes