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Background:
Establishing health security among vulnerable populations is a unique challenge for public health. Recent disasters have shown that individuals with special medical or physical needs who are independent in their day to day lives can be isolated and profoundly affected by an emergency. Since these individuals are not living in health care institutions, they do not have readily available medical support in a disaster. In particular, high-risk individuals with medical needs, such as power-dependent equipment or those with insulin-dependent diabetes, need to be prepared to survive during an emergency.
Program background:
The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Office of Preparedness and Response partnered with the state home care association (Maryland-National Capital Homecare Association-MNCHA) to develop special messaging for home care providers and their patients.
Taking collective lessons learned from disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, the two organizations created a Home Care Emergency Preparedness Network. The network is designed to provide real-time emergency information, as well as outreach, provider training, and educational materials to home care providers and their patients. Award-winning patient education brochures were produced, including special populations like those with dementia and diabetes, and those using power-dependent equipment. A provider manual was also developed to raise the level of emergency planning in home care across the state. All materials are available free on the MNCHA Web site.
The partnership has been successful in using home care providers as key intermediaries in educating seniors and disabled citizens about emergency preparedness and resiliency.
Evaluation Methods and Results:
The Home Care Emergency Preparedness Network has grown to include more than 700 home care agency contacts that are registered in an e-mail system. From 2013, the communication network was activated 15 times, alerting home care providers of potential or actual weather-related emergencies that could affect patient care.
In 2015, the first-ever emergency preparedness conference for Maryland home care providers (including home health, DME and private duty) was conducted. A second conference is scheduled for 2016.
Monthly reports are prepared to evaluate the dissemination of materials and the effectiveness of the emailed messages sent to the network, including open rates of emails and click through rates for links.
Conclusions:
Partnering with the state's home care association to create an emergency preparedness network has proven in Maryland to be a low-cost solution to the issue of reaching some of the state's most vulnerable populations. By targeting home care agencies directly to assist in emergency planning and providing messaging tailored to these special populations, this project is helping increase resiliency.
Implications for research and/or practice:
Other states can employ DHMH's partnership development and audience engagement processes to partner with their local home care association or other advocacy group/professional association to provide an additional outlet for outreach to vulnerable populations. This presentation will include information for all participants to connect with their state home care association to begin a dialogue about developing a similar partnership.