3. Financial Assistance: Financial assistance may best be provided by one or more levels of government, recognizing that some seniors may not be able to get to their bank or banking systems may be disrupted. Insurers must be prepared to respond to post-emergency claims, many of which will be of an urgent nature. Presentation of financial assistance or insurance programs will need to recognize that many seniors are reluctant to “ask for charity” so it is important to help them accept that financial assistance is their “right” during these extraordinary circumstances.
Next Steps
While there was consensus on recommendations for strategies to implement and promote emergency preparedness, allocation of responsibility for those strategies was felt to be premature. The recommendation of the National Roundtable is that CARP take a lead role in setting up a small working group or committee to review and identify existing policies, roles and responsibilities of the federal government, provincial/ territorial emergency measures organizations, municipal governments and regional health authorities as they relate to emergency preparedness.
In addition, CARP will contact voluntary organizations including national health organizations and professional associations inviting them to include an emergency preparedness resource section on their websites with links to other helpful sites. The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) will post information on their website on heat waves and environmental emergencies. The Public Health Agency of Canada offered to take a lead role in setting up an email network of information on issues related to vulnerable populations and emergency preparedness (e.g., seniors, children, persons with disabilities).
The increasing frequency and severity of major weather events signals an increasingly urgent need to plan for emergencies in a way that respects the needs of all, and recognizes the capacity of individuals and communities to care for themselves and each other.
“Heat Wave is not so much a book about weather, as about the calamitous consequences of forgetting our fellow citizens.”
– Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
Subsequent to the round table, and based on those discussions, CARP further proposes:
1. That the Public Health Agency of Canada and other key government bodies (such as Public Safety Canada, the Office of Climate Change and Health and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada) form a National Emergency Preparedness Council comprised of key stakeholder organizations from the public, private and voluntary sectors, the research community and seniors’ organizations to oversee and coordinate emergency preparedness efforts in Canada. Creation of the Council will facilitate a collaborative and integrated approach among all sectors and will foster partnerships to mobilize active seniors as volunteers and to meet the needs of high risk vulnerable seniors during environmental emergencies. Specific responsibilities are:
• an environmental scan of existing resources, programs and services as well as gaps and barriers with specific reference to vulnerable seniors and utilization of active seniors as volunteers.
• a focussed research program to build a body of scientific knowledge in order to better understand the consequences of environmental events such as heat waves on seniors and other vulnerable populations and to support evidence-based decision making.
