Policy Directions from the Findings of a Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response Survey from Persons with Mobility Impairments and a Course for Health Care and Emergency Management Professions

The empirical study of the Nobody Left Behind research project found that a majority of the emergency management systems around the country lack guidelines to assist persons with disabilities. Another component of this study was a qualitative narrative analysis of what was helpful for survival, difficulties experienced during and after the disaster, lessons learned, and future directions for emergency management from persons with mobility impairments who had survived a disaster.

This poster session will elaborate on the new findings of this qualitative study, including the policy directions persons with mobility impairments offer policy makers in the health care and emergency management fields. For example while disability specific and general preplanning and preparedness measures were helpful, difficulties arose when persons were evacuated to inaccessible shelters and temporary housing leading to health complications. Common themes for future policy directions offered by survey participants included consumers to educate their peers, health care personnel, and emergency managers on the needs of persons with disabilities.

With the training recommendation in mind, our Center developed a four hour course to educate health care personnel and administrators, public health administrators, and emergency management on disaster related assistance for persons with disabilities. The course evaluations demonstrated that training is a worthwhile investment to increase knowledge and confidence levels of health and emergency management personnel in assisting persons with disabilities during catastrophic events.