"America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration."
Though quoted by Warren G. Harding in 1920, few other phrases could describe the current state of the country. And while showy heroics are rarely welcome, heroes always are. They are out there, healing, restoring and making negative situations seem much more positive.
Patti Moss, assistant professor nursing, and Robert Smith ’76, assistant emergency management coordinator for the city of Beaumont, are such heroes. They recognize how extremely fragile the area’s special-needs population is in the face of any power-sapping event, whether natural or man-made. In answer to the need for an organized, specialneeds response in an emergency – from confirming that individuals receive the care they require to transportation to hospitals or, in some cases, evacuation – Moss and Smith, along with a project team, created the Disaster Planning for the Special Needs Population Project.
“This project began as a result of nursing research conducted after an extended power outage from an ice storm in January 1997,” said Moss, “exposing our vulnerability in Southeast Texas.”
She says the week-long power outage served as a catalyst in recognizing the lack of an adequate disaster plan for the specialneeds population, particularly the elderly and the sick. By January 2005, the project team began to build a database of the population. Moss says, the project becomes more “mobile.” By using PDAS, hand-held personal digital assistants team members can go door-to-door and collect data from residents so needs can be identified and recorded for access in an emergency.
The project has provided a model for how technology can aid in the exchange of crucial information between public safety and health agencies involved in disaster planning and individuals with special needs. These individuals may complete a form, available in an information packet and online, to provide their physical location and medical needs such as oxygen requirements, medications, mobility andmedical history. A software program imports the data into a mapping program. Mapping the data allows emergency personnel to view an area and see where special-needs individuals are located. The model developed is in the form of a CD with key links to websites, such as www.disaster-research.us, which provides the form for special-needs patients to complete for assistance.
The packets have been distributed by mail and to churches and area agencies, such as Meals on Wheels, Home Health and Area Agency on Aging.
In May 2005, the team initiated contacts with local church representatives who are interested in developing a model to help churches assist the special-needs members of their congregations.
“Plans include the development of a CD,” said Moss, “as well as a community workshop for local pastors and church leaders to assist them in implementing this model.”
The project was produced at a sixthgrade level, piloted and adjusted for comprehension level and readability for the elderly.
“The CD was created as a simple point-and-click interface and is designed to run on PC or Mac,” she said.
The program was tested in Southeast Texas during the Hurricane Rita evacuation and restoration.
“We were able to use the program, but the problem was that we had very limited information in the files,” said Smith. “Many of the 200 people we have in the database only needed evacuation information, such as routes and where they can get gas, and not actual evacuation assistance.” Their task now is to ensure that special-needs individuals submit their information so that the database is up-to-date and includes reference for the people who need medical or other special evacuation assistance.
Smith said they had to set up the system to pilot the database of individuals and do a survey of the needs of residents. The Rita evacuation illuminated the benefits of the database for the future in terms of quickly assessing the numbers and requirements of special-needs individuals in Beaumont.
“The database will facilitate a more rapid response and evacuation procedure for any city,” he said.
Smith said had the database been fully operational, they would have been able to have buses, ambulances or emergency personnel go by each residence to check on individuals and to assist in the evacuation. “It will take support from the state to implement it statewide. Implementation will require communications and cooperation from each region,” he said.
Smith also says for the database to be manageable, the definition of special needs population should be clearly defined as “only those who are medically fragile, and/or physically or mentally challenged.”
“We had people self-defining themselves as special needs due to the fact that they were out of gas or had no car,” he said.
Moss and Smith say one of the most impressive things they accomplished during Rita was they were able to use military aircraft to move about 8,000 people from the Southeast Texas Regional Airport after the majority of Beaumont’s emergency vehicles were in Houston, where the storm was originally expected to hit. “We also used Beaumont school district buses to evacuate people from our city who did not fall in the category of special needs,” said Smith.
Under normal circumstances, the use of ambulances, wheelchair-accessible vans and air-conditioned buses would be used to transport individuals by land.
Moss says a collaborative nursing approach was used in the development of the project outcomes. The project team joined with emergency and nursing units to plan their approach. Texas Nurses Association representatives became involved during the process to facilitate public-policy change regarding open records for special needs population.
As a result of this legislative initiative, Texas Government Code 418.75: Certain Information Confidential was signed into legislation. After two years of trying to facilitate a change, the records are now closed to the public.
“The cost of the project for the last seven years has been approximately $27,400,” said Moss. “Funding was provided by Lamar University, Entergy and Christus St. Mary Hospital.”
Jordan Moskoff, assistant director of adult emergency services, said he worked with Moss in San Augustine, where she had created a medical clinic to aide evacuees and local residents. “I found Ms. Moss to be not only the medical backbone of the region, but also the most knowledgeable leader regarding the needs of the community,” Moskoff said. “In addition to caring for patients in the makeshift clinic, she also went out to survey the residents and evacuees in the community to determine need and tend to their well being.”
The program has plans to respond to future natural disasters, and its project team is working hard to perfect it, implement it statewide and translate the program packets into Spanish.
“Those who care for special-needs populations now have access to a visionary community resource,” said Moss. “Overall, the project has established a new standard of disaster preparedness that mandates the inclusion and consideration of special needs populations.”
