What is PREPARE?

PREPARE equips senior living and long-term care professionals with the core competencies to address the medical and psychosocial consequences of natural disasters and other public health emergency preparedness and response concerns.

Administrators from nearly 200 long-term care communities from 30 states participated in a Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging Web-based needs assessment survey in early 2005. The survey found:

• 91% of long-term health care professionals, direct care workers, and other staff self-reported they are ill-prepared to deal with bioterrorism threats/public health emergencies.
• 81% self-reported to be unaware of an emergency management plan for older adults in their state or region.
• Less than 10% of respondents provided education to their staff in areas of:
  • performing disaster drills (most performed fire drills)
  • helping residents cope with disasters
  • managing biological/chemical exposure risk for older adults
  • managing workers' stress/anxiety associated with disasters

Project Partners:

PREPARE has worked with the following organizations to hold train-the-trainer workshops nationally:

2007:

• Provena Homes and Services, Mokena, IL
• New Jersey Health Association (NJHA), Princeton, NJ
• North Carolina State Veterans Home, Fayetteville, NC
• Minnesota Health and Housing Alliance (MHHA), St. Paul/Northfield, MN
• Kansas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Wichita, KS
• Kentucky Department for Public Health, Frankfort, KY
• South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO), Sioux Falls, SD
• Oregon Alliance of Senior and Health Services (OASHS), Lake Oswego, OR
• Missouri Health Care Association (MHCA), Jefferson City, MO
• Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Association (ASHNHA), Anchorage, AK
• Methodist Retirement and Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Houston, TX
• Colorado Health Care Association, Pueblo/Denver, CO
• Eastern Oklahoma Development District Area Agency on Aging, Muskogee, OK
• The Coalition for Emergency Preparedness and People With Disabilities, Columbus, OH
• The Beacon Institute, Columbia, MD
• Indiana Department of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN

2006:

• Florida Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (FAHA), Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Healthcare Ventures Alliance (HVA), Erie, PA
• Southern California Presbyterian Homes (SCPH), Glendale, CA
• California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (CAHSA), Pleasanton, CA
• Purchase District Health Department, Paducah, KY
• The City of Evanston Department of Public Health, Evanston, IL
• Kansas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (KAHSA), Wichita, KS
• New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (NYAHSA), New York, NY
• Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)

Additional PREPARE project partners include:

• Armed Forces Veterans Homes Foundation
• Institute for the Future of Aging Services (IFAS)
• Rush University
• American Society on Aging
• Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness in Aging (BTEPA)
• Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)

Mather LifeWays PREPARE project is also represented on the National Education Strategy Team (NEST), a consortium of HRSA-funded organizations whose mission is to develop a national disaster/emergency preparedness training strategy for community-based healthcare providers.

Disaster preparedness