Seniors and people with disabilities may have different needs during an emergency or disaster. And Delaware’s Emergency Management Agency is trying to make sure those groups are prepared.
Delaware Citizens Corps (CORE), the Office of Preparedness and Sussex County Senior Services hold a Community Preparedness Workshop for seniors and people with disabilities next week in Georgetown.
Mei Johnson is the program manager of the Delaware Citizens Corps (CORE) at DEMA.
She says the goal is to help seniors and people with disabilities, as well as first responders who serve them, properly prepare.
“The goal is to help anybody/everybody to know what to do and what to expect," said Johnson. "And this will ideally help relieve stress, it will help first responders in their communities who will be thinly stretched in the event of a large-scale disaster or even a smaller-scale emergency such as a severe winter storm - something along that effect.”
Johnson says understanding specific needs seniors and people with disabilities have is crucial during an emergency or disaster.
“Some special considerations might be particular medical equipment, having a list of medications that they take every day, contact numbers for their physicians or their pharmacies in case they need to evacuate out of the immediate area and they need access to their medications may a few days or maybe a week down the line," Johnson said.
Johnson adds that it’s important friends and family of seniors and people with disabilities ortheir professional caregivers be well-versed on these needs as well.
The Community Preparedness Workshop is Tuesday, February 4, 2020 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the CHEER Center in Georgetown.
Another workshop is scheduled for March 10, 2020 at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover.
