How do
we protect the physically or emotionally vulnerable population in an
emergency?
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[JAN. 17, 2006]
Anew committee has been formed to address the
needs of disabled people in the event of an area emergency. Logan
County Health Department Administrator Mark Hilliard reported to the
Logan County Local Emergency Planning Committee that a Special Needs
Advisory Panel has been formed.
About 30 individuals from different agencies attended the panel's
first meeting, Hilliard said. Fern Pinkley, chairman of the Lincoln
Mayor's Disabilities Committee, and Starla Norris from the
Springfield Center for Independent Living were also invited.
Catastrophic events, as seen last year when Hurricane Katrina struck
Mississippi and Louisiana, provide a number of lessons in aftermath
analysis. One of those lessons is an expanded awareness in preparing
emergency measures to move and care for those with special needs.
Two directives were established by the group:
Identify people in need of assistance and notify agencies.
Collect specific information that can be tagged on the 911
emergency system.
Dan Fulscher, director of the Logan County Emergency Management
Agency, said that the project is right in time for changes that will
soon be made with the E-911 system. A new upgrade is in the planning
stage that significantly expands the system's capabilities.
U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood is credited with securing grant funds for
this upgrade.
There are a couple of issues that they will need to be worked out
in communicating or supplying information. One is that it will take
a large volume of data entry and upkeep to enter that information in
the 911 system. There would need to be someone to do the work, he
said. Fulscher said that 125 people per week move into Logan County.
Fran Fulscher volunteered to do the work.
Another issue that would need to be looked at is how to provide
the information where needed and keep it confidential so as not to
violate people's medical right to privacy under the federal health
information privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996.
The additions to the 911 system would need approval from the
Emergency Telephone System Board.
The next meeting of the Special Needs Advisory Panel will be in
September at the Logan County Health Department.
