Are You Ready? Five Emergency Preparedness Guides for Older Adults & Caregivers

By now you’ve seen photos of the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey. And you may now be reading about emergency preparations underway in Florida in advance of Hurricane Irma. Perhaps you wonder what you might do, or how a loved one might cope, were an emergency to occur here.

September is National Emergency Preparedness Month, a month-long time to focus on your planning on how you can take action when disaster strikes – where you live, work, and visit.

Even here at Iona, we have our own Emergency Preparedness Plan in case there is ever an emergency at our site or in the community. And we want to make sure you are prepared too.

To honor this month, we’d like to encourage you to create your own emergency plan for you or a loved one. Take a look at these free resources to help you get started.

Five Free Resources for Emergency Preparedness

1. Disaster Preparedness for Seniors by Seniors by the American Red Cross
2. Prepare for Emergencies Now: Information for People with Disabilities by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland.
3. The Calm Before the Storm: Family Conversations about Disaster Planning, Caregiving, Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia by the Hartford Center for Mature Market Excellence.
4. Stay in Touch in Crisis Situations by the Eldercare Locator.
5. Pets and Disaster Safety Checklist by the American Red Cross.

Do you know of other helpful resources to help you prepare for an emergency? Let us know in the comments. 

By Leland Kiang, LICSW

Leland Kiang, LICSW is manager of Iona’s Information & Referral Help Line, whose staff answers questions about senior services throughout the DC metro area.  Leland also has written articles for BIFOCAL, Unite Virginia, and the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging.