Redlands Disaster Council Learns 3 Ways City Can Help Those with Disabilities in an Emergency

(TNS) — When disaster strikes, those with accessibility issues and functional needs are disproportionately impacted, a state official shared with the Redlands, Calif., Disaster Council this week.

The state Office of Access and Functional Needs aims to ensure these at-risk populations are supported in a widespread emergency.

“We’re talking about a lot of communities. It’s a lot of populations,” said Vance Taylor, chief with the office, which is under the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, during a presentation to the Redlands Disaster Council Monday, Jan. 22, at City Hall.

The populations with access and functional needs, Taylor said, include individuals with disabilities, chronic illness, those whose primary language is not English, those who are transportation disadvantaged, economically challenged, older adults, children, women in late stage of pregnancy and people living in institutional settings.

To better assist these population groups, Taylor’s office was created.

“In 2008, the California governor recognized that what we were seeing across the country was that every single time there’s a disaster, regardless of the type, the most disproportionately impacted population were those with access and functional needs,” he said.

Taylor shared with the council three things all communities can do to improve the care of those with access and functional needs.

He suggests local emergency managers:

• Establish a relationship with local independent learning centers, which are nonprofits designed and operated by people with disabilities aimed at helping others with disabilities live independent lives, he said. There are 28 in California, including one that serves Redlands.
• Reassess accessibility of emergency shelters.
• Include an American Sign Language interpreter during press conferences.

“In an environment of thinning budgets and ever-limited bandwidth, these are three things that local emergency managers can do without spending exorbitant amounts of money or requiring exorbitant amounts of time that will yield monumentally significant results in their efforts to integrate access and functional needs,” Taylor said. “These things are tried, true and tested.”

The disaster council, which meets four times a year, also heard an update on the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health Preparedness and Response program, which is currently addressing the largest flu season since 2009, said Ashley Congjuico, medical emergency planning specialist with the program.

“I know the big thing on peoples’ minds right now is the influenza,” Congjuico said, adding that there are a number of resources available to help prevent the flu — from the flu vaccine to information to limit the spread of germs.

———

©2018 the Redlands Daily Facts (Redlands, Calif.)

Visit the Redlands Daily Facts (Redlands, Calif.) at www.redlandsdailyfacts.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC