Improving Disaster Resilience Among Older Adults PDF Download

Author: Regina A. Shih
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
"This report uses interview data collected from public health departments and aging-in-place efforts — specifically, from coordinators of age-friendly communities and village executive directors — to explore how current aging-in-place efforts can be harnessed to strengthen the disaster resilience of older adults and which existing programs or new collaborations among public health departments and these organizations show promise for improving disaster resilience for older populations."--Publisher's description.

Author: Regina A. Shih
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
Older adults are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. Collaborations between public health departments and organizations that promote aging in place could improve disaster resilience among older populations.

Author: Danielle Arigoni
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642832987
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Climate change is having an immediate and sometimes life-threatening impact, especially for older adults – generally speaking, people 65 or older. Older adults often face mobility, cognitive, and resource challenges, which contribute to a disproportionate number of deaths in the face of major disasters. But some challenges are less visible. Consider the grandparent who no longer can stand and wait at the bus stop because of the heat, or the retiree who lives in a home with black mold due to chronic flooding that she can’t afford to remediate or leave because of her limited fixed income. Our population is aging—by 2034, the US will have more people over 65 than under 18. Despite the evidence that climate change is severely impacting older adults, and the reality that communities will be confronted with more frequent and more severe disasters, we’re not prepared to address the needs of older adults and other vulnerable populations in the face of a changing climate. In Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation, community resilience and housing expert Danielle Arigoni argues that we cannot achieve true resilience until communities adopt interventions that work to meet the needs of their oldest residents. She explains that when we plan for those most impacted by climate, and for those with the greatest obstacles to opportunity and well-being, we improve conditions for all. Arigoni explores how to integrate age-friendly resilience into community planning and disaster preparedness efforts through new planning approaches—including an age-friendly process, and a planning framework dedicated to inclusive disaster recovery—to create communities that serve the needs of older adults better, not only during disasters but for all the days in between. Examples are woven throughout the book, including case studies of age-friendly resilience in action from New York State; Portland, Oregon and Multnomah County; and New Orleans. Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation will help professionals and concerned citizens understand how to best plan for both the aging of our population and the climate changes underway so that we can create safer, more livable communities for all.

Author: Joie D. Acosta
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
The increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related and other disaster events combined with the growing representation of older adults in the overall population have created a new environment in which public health and prevention planning and programs will need to actively promote the resilience of older adults. Resilience-building efforts of public health departments to support a range of emergency response issues are not always tailored for older adults and thus may not make accommodations for their needs. Relatedly, aging-in-place efforts (specifically age-friendly communities and villages), which have arisen to support older adults’ social, economic, and residential needs, often do not focus on aspects of resilience-building. The goal of this toolkit is to bring together those involved in aging-in-place support and those involved in disaster resilience efforts to improve the ability of older adults to withstand and rebound from the effects of natural and human-caused disasters. The toolkit endeavors to bring together these two fields that are currently engaging in separate, yet complementary, work; to identify their shared interests and functions; and to help them plan, implement, evaluate, and improve their independent and collaborative activities designed to promote older adults’ resilience.

Author: Andrew V. Wister
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030570894
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Older aged adults face many adversities over the later life course. This edited volume will address the ways in which seniors bounce back from different types and combinations of adversity – termed “resilience”. While research has been accumulating that identifies inherent abilities and external resources needed to adapt and navigate stress-inducing experiences among aging and older adults, gaps remain in understanding the unique elements and processes of resilience. A series of chapters included in this book will address several overarching questions: why do some older individuals/families/communities adapt to adversity better than others; what are modifiable behavioral protective/risk factors related to resilience; and how can we foster resilience at the individual/community level and which approaches show the most promise? The spectrum of aging-related challenges and responses addressed in this book include: mental health; physical/functional health problems; multimorbidity; socio-economic deprivation; social isolation and loneliness; cultural dimensions of loneliness; housing/homelessness problems; and environmental disasters. This book presents cutting-edge science at the conceptual, methodological, empirical and practice levels applied to emerging resilience sub-fields in gerontology. It will also present potential areas of future research, policy and practice linked to these areas. During a period of the most rapid population aging in the US, Canada and many other nations, coupled with heightened global socio-political change, extending our knowledge of resilience will help society to make important adjustments to maximize health and wellness of older individuals. Supporting and enhancing resilience through technological, social and/or community-level advances in geroscience will help those facing adversity to thrive by harnessing, stretching, and leveraging a wide array of potential resources. The promotion of healthier older populations has far-reaching consequences for health care and social/community support systems, both in terms of public health including pandemic response, and the development and implementation of innovations in treatment and practice guidelines.

Author: Claire Pendergrast
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
Purpose of the Study: Older adults are more susceptible to adverse health outcomes during and after a disaster compared with their younger counterparts. Aging-in-place organizations such as senior centers and Villages provide social services and programming for older adults and may support older adults' resilience to disasters. This study examines the role of aging-in-place organizations in building disaster resilience for older adults, as well as perceived challenges and opportunities of incorporating disaster resilience activities into organizational programming. Design and Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 14 aging-in-place organization leaders in King County, Washington. The sample included representatives of five government-run senior centers, seven non-profit senior centers, and two Villages. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed. We used a combined inductive and deductive approach to code and thematically analyze the data. Results: Aging-in-place organization leadership recognize disasters as a threat to older adults' health and safety, and they see opportunities to provide disaster-related support for older adults, though the type and extent of participation in resilience-building activities reflected each organization's unique local context. Organizations participate in a variety of disaster-related planning and activities, though participants heavily emphasized the importance of collaborative and communication-focused efforts. Implications: Findings suggest that aging-in-place organizations should be included in local disaster planning efforts. They may be best equipped to support older adults' disaster resilience by serving as a trusted source of disaster-related information and providing input on the appropriateness of disaster plans and messages for the unique needs of older adults aging-in-place.

Author: Melissa Stanton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Tiffany Wong
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Problem: Natural and man-made disasters happen in all communities and negatively impact the health and safety of populations. Vulnerable populations, such as older adults with comorbidities and disabilities or those aging in place, face greater challenges and have specific needs when faced with disasters. The physical, psychosocial, and cultural characteristics of older adults place them at greater risk during disasters. Emergency preparedness is necessary to build and improve community resilience, as well as to ensure older adults aging in place have the necessary supplies and support to respond to a disaster. Without a proper action plan, recovery efforts during disaster response for this targeted population can exacerbate disparities. A collaborative effort is needed to build community resilience to withstand and recover from disasters. Context: Global climate change has and is affecting the San Francisco Bay Area. The Neighborhood Empowerment Network is a cohort of organizations focused on positioning communities around San Francisco to be resilient during any time of stress. The organization provides numerous resources and programs to community leaders to improve the quality of life among their neighborhoods. Disaster preparedness resources, such as a shelter-in-place assessment, are tools necessary for community leaders to build and implement plans to care for their community before, during, and after a disaster. Intervention: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student developed and introduced a disaster toolkit into practice to help community leaders implement and improve current disaster preparation and management action plans. Video interviews were conducted with leaders who were experienced and knowledgeable on the health needs of older adults aging in place. A toolkit was created based on a review of the literature and best practice recommendations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions, the implementation of the toolkit and training for Neighborhood Empowerment Network Block Champions was deferred to a future date. Subsequently, the project was implemented with graduate students and healthcare clinicians. Outcome Measures: Outcome measures included pre-and post-surveys to evaluate the change in disaster preparedness knowledge for older adults. Results: Data analysis revealed an increase in overall knowledge and confidence regarding disaster preparedness for older adults among participants after reviewing the toolkit. Respondents also indicated the toolkit was easy to use, which scored a mean value of 4.83 out of 5 on the Likert Scale, as well as the toolkit provided the necessary strategies and resources to make their community safer and better prepared. Conclusion: A disaster preparedness toolkit for older adults is an effective strategy to prevent consequences endured during and after an emergency. Enhancing the skills and knowledge of community members can improve community resilience and help communities recover from disasters.

Author: Brett William Robertson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Older adults are considered one of the most vulnerable populations in natural disasters, and our knowledge of the communicative processes behind their disaster preparations is limited. Extant research has called for more scholarship to understand the antecedents to their preparations. One promising area in the literature is the notion of community for older adults. While perceptions of community have positive health benefits, there is little work that investigates the role of community perceptions in the natural disaster context for older adults. The focus of this effort is to bring more attention to the role that community and organizations have on risk behaviors for older adults by extending Witte’s (1992) Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). To accomplish this goal, this study incorporates the concept of community-efficacy into the perceptions of efficacy component of the model to better understand intention toward preparing in advance for natural disasters for older adults living in continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). EPPM, generally an individual-centered health communication theory, includes the concepts of threat and efficacy, but overlooks a collective component, community-efficacy. Using quantitative survey data from two CCRCs in U.S., this research contributes to communication scholarship by highlighting how community-efficacy uniquely explains a significant, but small amount of additional variance on the intention to prepare for natural disasters above all other predictors in EPPM. This dissertation’s extension of the perceived efficacy components of EPPM can be useful at predicting older adults’ future disaster preparedness behaviors. Given the role of community resilience during natural disasters, as well as the beneficial impact of community within retirement communities, this dissertation examined several variables that influence the intention to prepare. The results show that disaster management perceptions, community identification, and response-efficacy moderate the relationship between community-efficacy and intention to prepare, while previous experience with natural disasters and communication with others before a natural disaster predicts the intention to prepare. Together, the investigation of these variables provides insight into both theoretical and practical considerations needed for understanding disaster preparations in the older adult context

Author: National Academies
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309261503
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
No person or place is immune from disasters or disaster-related losses. Infectious disease outbreaks, acts of terrorism, social unrest, or financial disasters in addition to natural hazards can all lead to large-scale consequences for the nation and its communities. Communities and the nation thus face difficult fiscal, social, cultural, and environmental choices about the best ways to ensure basic security and quality of life against hazards, deliberate attacks, and disasters. Beyond the unquantifiable costs of injury and loss of life from disasters, statistics for 2011 alone indicate economic damages from natural disasters in the United States exceeded $55 billion, with 14 events costing more than a billion dollars in damages each. One way to reduce the impacts of disasters on the nation and its communities is to invest in enhancing resilience-the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from and more successfully adapt to adverse events. Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative addresses the broad issue of increasing the nation's resilience to disasters. This book defines "national resilience", describes the state of knowledge about resilience to hazards and disasters, and frames the main issues related to increasing resilience in the United States. It also provide goals, baseline conditions, or performance metrics for national resilience and outlines additional information, data, gaps, and/or obstacles that need to be addressed to increase the nation's resilience to disasters. Additionally, the book's authoring committee makes recommendations about the necessary approaches to elevate national resilience to disasters in the United States. Enhanced resilience allows better anticipation of disasters and better planning to reduce disaster losses-rather than waiting for an event to occur and paying for it afterward. Disaster Resilience confronts the topic of how to increase the nation's resilience to disasters through a vision of the characteristics of a resilient nation in the year 2030. Increasing disaster resilience is an imperative that requires the collective will of the nation and its communities. Although disasters will continue to occur, actions that move the nation from reactive approaches to disasters to a proactive stance where communities actively engage in enhancing resilience will reduce many of the broad societal and economic burdens that disasters can cause.