Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

58 Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
into existing curricular materials. There was also discussion about measuring
outcomes using the following suggested measures: development of
emergency plans for older adults, adding questions to certification exams
for health care professionals, and including aging issues in emergency preparedness
protocols (Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness in Aging
Collaborative, 2004).
A second meeting of the GEPR Collaborative was held among grantees
and HRSA staff in Bethesda, Maryland, on August 25–26, 2004. At
this meeting, the six grantees presented progress reports on their HRSAfunded
projects as highlighted in Table 3.3, and a nominal group technique
was undertaken to develop consensus on recommendations for a new
White Paper chapter on bioterrorism and aging. 1
GEPR FOCUS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH EFFECTS
OF EMERGENCIES ON OLDER PERSONS
Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers
The focus of the CNYGEC GEPR Collaborative project is geriatric mental
health and disaster preparedness. The Stanford GEC Bioterrorism
and Emergency Preparedness in Aging Collaborative (BTEPA) project
also focuses on mental health with an emphasis on ethnogeriatrics. The
CNYGEC partners, Mount Sinai School of Medicine Brookdale Department
of Geriatrics and Adult Development; Columbia University Stroud
Center for Studies of Quality of Life; New York University College of Nursing;
and Hunter College, Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity,
brought together a 13-member panel of experts in April 2004.
Representing nursing, social work, medicine, psychology and psychiatry,
and public health, the panel was charged with developing a curriculum outline
for a training program on the mental health effects of disasters on
older persons. The result of the deliberations of this expert group was a
curriculum outline with the following content areas:
n Types of man-made and natural disasters
n The story of September 11, 2001
n Defi nitions and examples of terms such as crisis, emergency, disaster,
preparedness, and readiness
n Special considerations of older persons with regard to housing,
transportation, psychology, and health
n Overview of aging and mental health, common mental health problems,
diagnosis and assessment, and psychosocial factors