Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

48 Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
hospitals, ambulatory care centers, and senior centers. Over the last two
decades, achievements of the GEC programs include the following:
n Training more than 425,000 health care professionals from 27
health-related disciplines to better serve the growing older adult
population
n Developing over 1,000 curricular materials on aging-related topics,
including interdisciplinary team care, geriatric syndromes, ethnogeriatrics,
cultural competency, health literacy, quality of care,
rural health access issues, and bioterrorism and emergency preparedness
n Delivering 282 distance learning programs to 37,000 health care
professionals in rural and underserved areas (Advisory Committee
on Interdisciplinary and Community-Based Linkages, 2006)
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GEC GERIATRIC EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE COLLABORATIVE
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001,
heightened awareness of the vulnerability of older persons in times of
bioterrorism and emergencies. As is now well-known, older and disabled
persons were trapped for days before help arrived after the Twin Towers
collapsed. This led to a citywide effort in the following months to develop
a system for ensuring agencies had emergency preparedness plans that
included rapid and comprehensive assistance for vulnerable populations,
such as older adults (O’Brien, 2003).
Process of Developing the Collaborative
At the national meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA)
in November 2003, GEC representatives became aware of potential
funding streams in emergency and bioterrorism preparedness that excluded
older adults. That knowledge led to a quickly assembled meeting
at the GSA conference of the GEC network with the aim of ensuring older
persons were included in initiatives in this area (Johnson, 2006). It was a
seminal meeting, as it essentially launched the movement of GECs working
together to ensure health care providers received the necessary training
and education to assist older persons in times of bioterrorism and
emergencies.