The Senate Special Committee on Aging examined the need to include senior living care in national disaster planning and emergency preparedness at a recent hearing.
Witnesses testified that seniors are particularly vulnerable at a time of a natural, man-made or public health emergency because of their unique transportation needs, medical condition and frailty. Many seniors refuse to evacuate because they are unwilling to leave their pets behind. Others are evacuated without life-saving medications or get separated from caregivers who are also affected by the disaster.
While only 15 percent of the population of New Orleans was over the age of 60 at the time Hurricane Katrina hit four years ago, about 74 percent of the deaths were seniors, underscoring the particular vulnerability of the very old. Victims died because of lack of proper hydration, heat stress, lack of medication, and other factors worsened by the disaster.
Long-term care facilities, including assisted living communities and skilled nursing homes, were not included in national emergency response systems as hospitals were in 2005. As a result, they received no evacuation instructions before the disaster struck and no priority status to restore utilities, like telephone and electrical service afterward. While long-term care facilities are included in state emergency planning and are required to develop their own plans, witnesses at the committee hearing said it is important to specifically include long-term care in the national planning as well.
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), who convened the hearing, said his home state of Florida could act as a model for the nation in preparedness. The state’s large population of seniors, most of them living alone, and frequency of hurricanes has made advance emergency planning a priority. Seniors are advised to prepare emergency kits containing medicine, extra eye glasses and hearing aides, and other vitally important items that can be carried by the individual to an emergency shelter.
Aging Committee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) said more needs to be done to make certain the most vulnerable seniors receive the care and services then need when disaster strikes. “Disaster can strike at any time,‘’ said Sen. Kohl. “We have to be ready today.”
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