Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 3 The Geriatric Emergency Preparedness and Response (GEPR) 49
This heightened awareness led the GECs’ national organization, the
National Association of Geriatric Education Centers (NAGEC), to form the
GEPR Collaborative in response to the identified need for increased attention
to older people in times of emergencies or disasters. The goal of
the founders of the GEPR Collaborative was to jointly develop, disseminate,
and evaluate GEPR curricula and training tools for health providers
caring for older adults at risk in the event of a disaster or emergency.
The founding members of the GEPR Collaborative agreed to develop
a mission statement, carry out a needs assessment, develop an evidence
base, and work together in securing funding and developing and dissemi-
POSITION STATEMENT
Table 3.1
Position Statement of the Bioterrorism Preparedness Committee
of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers
(NAGEC) – 2003
Inasmuch as neither the nation’s health work force nor older people and their
caregivers are adequately prepared to respond quickly and effectively in the event
of an attack by bioterrorists, the faculty in all 41 GECs have recognized the
major threat that the specter of such a disaster poses to a particularly vulnerable
segment of our country’s population, the 35,000,000 and rapidly growing number
of people over the age of 65, especially those frail elders living alone. Many
others live in intergenerational households particularly among ethnic minority
communities whose access to urgent information may be delayed because of
language, cultural factors, and family caregivers who also work outside their
homes. Several GECs have already created and disseminated a number of
training curricula, all of which are designed to improve the health care provided
to the elderly population in response to an attack by bioterrorists. A Bioterrorism
Preparedness Committee of the GECs has met and determined the need to
develop more specifi c and standardized training programs and to ensure that
all of these programs are conducted throughout the national GEC network.
In addition, there is a need to expand the programs beyond the GECs to
their community partners to ensure that culturally appropriate training on the
special needs of the elderly and their families is offered to agencies that provide
services to the elderly in both emergency situations and over the long-term.
Working in concert with HRSA, the GECs’ Bioterrorism Preparedness Plan . . .
can be implemented in 2004.
From “Geriatric Education Centers Prepare to Combat Bioterrorism,” by N. Tumosa,
2003, Aging Successfully, 13 (1), 20–21.