Emergency And Disaster Preparedness Education For The Latino Community

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

As a community health nurse, I would be most interested in a focus group to assist elderly residents in developing emergency and disaster preparedness plans. I choose this population because elderly citizens face great health and safety risks when emergencies and disasters strike (Clark et al., 2003). It is important for health care practitioners to understand the needs of the elderly in the communities they serve (Barratt, 2007). There may be a need to quickly evacuate the local area and elderly residents may lack proper transportation. Some seniors may become confined to their homes in a disaster. Others may not know what to do if they lose services such as water, heat, electricity and basic communication. Proper advance planning can mean the difference between survival and suffering or death.

In the article “For Houston’s Homeless, a Terrifying Night Under Siege by Hurricane Harvey” by Julie Turkewitz, the main focus is the harsh reality of a hurricane this string for those who are homeless in Houston. First, Turkewitz sets the harsh reality by telling the readers about Roy Joe Cox- a homeless man in Houston- who is preparing to cope for the Hurricane with what little he has. She then builds her claim by writing about what the effects of Hurricane Harvey are, and what officials are expecting to happen. Next, Turkewitz suggests that any homeless person who is in Houston at this time should seek shelter at the available locations. Finally, she brings the harsh and sad reality for the homeless men and women in Houston by quoting Roy Joe Cox as he asks, “I’ve never experienced a hurricane. Is it going to rain out that bad? Is it going to flood me out? I mean, I don’t want to die over a hurricane . . . I’d rather not die.” (Turkewitz, 2017).

To my concern, this topic is extremely sensitive as the Hispanic group is the largest growing ethnic group inside the U.S. In addition, a number of challenges contribute to the epidemic in Latino communities, including poverty,

By understanding the steps to prepare for countering and responding to a terrorist, the well-being of US national security interests can be promoted and the exposure to risk and susceptibility to experiencing harm can be efficiently managed for communities, families and individuals in the event of a terrorist incident. The welfare of US national security, citizens and property can be effectively safeguarded through the understanding of protection strategies administered collectively by local communities, families and individuals. Local emergency operations planning, family disaster planning, as well as self-protection planning each represent important protective measures, which serve to educate the nation and its citizens how to

In the wake of natural disasters, the minorities of America are down the pecking order in the government’s list of priorities. Specifically seen in the African-American people, the government fails to provide speedy response time, supplies and other aid, as well as providing substantial compensation for the families devastated by disasters, which could have been preventable or deterred from causing more havoc. In many cases, the African-American people were exposed to poor living conditions, living in undesirable areas, and a lack of wealth, education, and preventative warnings of oncoming disasters. This can be seen in the cases of the 1900 great hurricane of Galveston, Texas and the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, but the greatest example of

Specifically, the grant seeks research expertise that concentrates on Hispanic’s access to health care by understanding potential disparities of the cultural barriers that may hinder access to preventative health services. As a grantee, the grantee could use the funding for the implementation of intervention studies that focus on education designed for the Hispanic community. An example may include developing an educational program to increase awareness, improve understanding of health prevention services, and share strategies for accessing the health care system. The education programs will initially occur by targeting urban housing areas with a high census of Hispanic population and then identify what venues such as recreation and resource centers are appropriate for various campaign efforts. During the outreach events, resources such as Spanish literature and interpreters are available that promote prevention health services and state and federal resources to enroll in healthcare

Question One: What populations are vulnerable and what resources are available for vulnerable citizens? The vulnerable populations in Houston are the low income communities (including homeless people), the elderly, people with disabilities, immigrants, and the "linguistically isolated communities…Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese speaking groups" (Nepal, et al, 2009). The St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities prepared a report on disaster preparedness for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (Peranteau, et al, 2009). The report explains that vulnerable populations tend to be more impacted by hurricanes and other disasters than the middle class and upper middle class communities in Houston. The report state that "…Failure to address the needs of low income communities and individuals, who are disproportionately affected by natural disasters," hampers the recovery from a hurricane for all communities. "Low income communities" (i.e., vulnerable communities) are "disproportionately affected by natural disasters, and are disadvantaged again when the recovery process does not take their unique needs into account" (Peranteau, p. 3). The point of the research was to determine how best to serve this population during hurricanes and tropical storms, which are very common in Houston.

I would like to find out more about what makes Latinos different from other people of color. I am interested in whether or not the statistic for Latinos and African Americans being affected by the heat wave was found to be significant or not and if a heat wave today would have the same effect on minority populations. It was also interesting to me that neighborhoods with more churches helped to protect their elderly population from the heat wave. I would like to read more research about how the different organization levels of the churches relate to how the heatwave impacted their respective communities. I would like to learn more about the different neighborhoods today and how a heatwave would affect the different ethnic communities in a different manner. Our communities today are going through a lot of segregation and gentrification, so it would be intriguing to learn more about how that process would affect a hypothetical disaster such as this

Listos was started in the fall of 2010 with generous support from the Orfalea Foundation and the Aware and Prepare Initiative: A Community Partnership to strengthen Emergency & Disaster Readiness in Santa Barbara, California (Listos, 2014). They aim to eliminate the language barrier that interferes with the relationships between first responders and the Latino community. In addition, the Listos curriculum is low to no cost and provides tips for the participants to use during disaster and throughout their everyday lives. The program is a four week discussion series taken from the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The topics covered in these discussions are identifying vulnerabilities, fire extinguisher use, important document backup, disaster supply kits, utility shut off, creating reunification and communication plans, triage, disaster medicine, team organization, and disaster psychology (Listos, 2014). Moreover, the program can be adapted to teach diverse vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, children, differently abled people, etc. Listos has trained over 588 monolingual Spanish speakers in Santa Barbara County (Listos, 2014). In 2014, the Listos Program was led in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates the federal government's position in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, which now including acts of terror. FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery and mitigation. A key component of community preparedness and participation is the citizen. The CERT program strives to familiarize citizens with the facts about what to expect following a major disaster in their community and to deliver the message about their responsibility for mitigation and preparedness. CERT educates individuals

The disaster which hit the Maricopa County in the State of Arizona in September 2014 was a major disaster that necessitated the community preparedness for leading successful response and a prompt recovery. Besides emergency managers, many officials and the private are involved in the processes. Some of these stakeholders are public health, public safety, and municipal officials. Collaboration is needed for getting all those involved in the processes to interact accordingly. This paper addresses the major collaboration strengths between emergency responders, public health, public safety, and municipal officials to deliver accurate response and recovery during the event, the main weaknesses of the collaboration among all those that were involved in the efforts, and recommendations for improving the collaboration between the stakeholders.

Having a basic understanding of community or national emergency plans can assist families in disaster. This is especially true during the response phase. The National Response Framework (NRF) is a great example of a national community reference. According to FEMA’s publication, “The National Response Framework,” from 2013, the NRF is a guide which describes the basis of national response to any form of disaster. The NRF was developed from a long line of response guidance plans. The first was the Federal Response plan which was replaced by the National Response Plan. Then in 2008, the NRF was developed to make national response guidance more efficient as well as to include practices created after Hurricane Katrina. The NRF is comprised

Katz, R. (2018). Essentials of public health preparedness and emergency management (1st ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

The Department of Homeland Security released the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review on June 18, 2014 as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and its amendments. This review outlined the current state of preparedness, as well as the future areas of concentration. It also determined six strategic challenges facing the nation: terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns as a whole; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards. The basic building block of emergency management in the U.S. is the local community. Each step begins here. Threat assessments are completed on the local level. Planning, mitigation, and response are all responsibilities of the local community to support the state and Federal practice using the guidance provided by both.