Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 4 Coordinating Services 71
van, Bunting, Cobb, & Fugate-Whitlock, 2007; Rosenkoetter, Covan, Bunting,
Cobb, & Weinrlch, 2007; Rosenthal, Klein, Cowling, Grzybowski, &
Dunne, 2005). The value of the MSEHPA is that agencies seeking to develop
specific response strategies for older persons are afforded extraordinary
latitude in providing required services. The MSEHPA allows state
governors to suspend regulations and laws that may interfere with the
provision of needed emergency services, including the following:
n Updating language to allow for expedited access to medications
and vaccines
n Enabling responders to provide medical services even with outof-state
licenses
n Providing liability coverage to volunteers and others who provide
medical services
The development of appropriate plans for dealing with disasters depends
on understanding the nature of a disaster or emergency as well as identifying
appropriate responses, including having the right resources in the
right place at the right time (Cherniack, Sandals, Brook, & Mintze, 2008;
Dorn, Savoia, Testa, Stoto, & Marcus, 2007). Although language differences
may differentiate service delivery models and responsibilities, disasters
and emergencies have common characteristics. Disaster events are
regional, temporal, and in need of external assistance beyond local response
resources. By implication, an event is a disaster when local resources are
overwhelmed and external resources, including personnel, are required
to assist in rescue and recover areas. Under this description, a local apartment
fire is not considered a disaster except for the individuals involved
since, although it is regional and temporal, it does not usually require assistance
beyond the local community for resolution.
In spite of the combined relatively widespread impact of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita—which devastated a land area as large as Great Britain—
the damage was limited geographically and the impact on resources for
dealing with most evacuees was limited almost entirely to the southern
United States. While evacuees were dispersed to many cities, there was not
a major impact on the daily lives of the vast majority of Americans or American
cities.
Disasters are temporal. They have a beginning and an end. Most natural
disasters are typically measured in days commencing with the start
of the event and concluding with the completion of recovery. Hurricanes,
for example, have predictable paths and are more easily forecast—their