To build resilient communities, we need to make sure that the entire community can withstand disaster and bounce back quickly. We can make a great stride toward resilience and health security by ensuring that emergency plans for hospitals, emergency responders, healthcare providers and government agencies meet the needs of the entire community, including people with access and functional needs, when disaster strikes.
About 20 percent of Americans live with some kind of disability. During disasters, many may require specialized care or different approaches to help them stay safe and healthy. Yet just because a person has a disability doesn't mean they automatically will need help from emergency responders. So in planning for emergencies, we need to consider access and functional needs.
So, what are access and functional needs how can we meet these needs?
Addressing access-based needs means community resources are easy to access by everyone in the community - all of the social services, accommodations, information, transportation, and disaster-related medications. Function-based needs are a person's basic needs - eating, dressing, mobility, and so on. To learn more, check ASPR’s Guidance on Integrating People with Access and Functional Needs into Disaster Preparedness Planning for States and Local Governments.
ASPR provides resources emphasizing the access and functional needs of children and older adults which, in collaboration with other relevant federal agencies, emphasize cross-cutting approaches to disaster preparedness planning for those with access and functional needs.
One of those tools is a cross-cutting framework called CMIST. CMIST highlights the specific areas of communication, maintaining health, independence, services, support, self-determination, and transportation to help communities plan for the needs of community members with access and functional needs.
This framework has been used successfully by communities across the country. State agencies in Kentucky and Massachusetts, for example, used the framework to integrate access to communication during disasters and emergencies. To learn how these states effectively used CMIST, check out the Emergency Management and Preparedness: Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities Webinar Series.
By using emergency planning frameworks and resources that integrate access and functional needs, we can build a social connectedness and bolster health security for everyone. Addressing access and functional needs may be hard to do during a disaster, so planning now is critical to protecting health and safety during an emergency.
