Preparing Families of Children With Special Health Care Needs for Disasters: An Education Intervention

Abstract

Children with special health care needs pose a special challenge in post-disaster response. Current research suggests that the general population is not adequately prepared for a major disaster event, with members of vulnerable populations even less prepared. The purpose of this study was to determine the short-term effectiveness of a brief patient education intervention aimed at increasing levels of disaster preparedness among families of special health care needs children. One hundred twenty-one families were randomly assigned to either intervention or intervention plus incentive group. Families were surveyed prior to the intervention using a previously published instrument on family preparedness, and at 30-45 days post-intervention. A Preparedness Score was assigned to each family based on the number of items completed on the preparedness instrument. Significant differences were found between pre- and posttest scores for families that received the intervention, regardless of whether or not an incentive item was provided. Posttest scores were significantly higher than pretest scores, suggesting that the intervention was successful in increasing short-term overall levels of family preparedness in this population.

Emergency preparedness of families of children with developmental disabilities: What public health and safety emergency planners need to know

“…Our results indicate that like much of the general public, 3 parents of children with DD were under-prepared for emergencies, both by self-report of their general state of preparedness and by number of preparedness steps taken. These findings are consistent with those of Baker and colleagues, 3,37 who found that parents of children with SHCN were generally unprepared in terms of supplies, planning, and knowledge. Baker and colleagues’ findings suggest no differences in preparedness levels between parents whose children had a single special need and those whose children had more than one special need.…”

Children with Disabilities and Disaster Risk Reduction: A Review

“…Children with disabilities, who may already have limited social networks, are often separated from caregivers during a disaster. This deprives the children of critical information and support, and disrupts the continuity of medical care (Baker et al 2012).…”

“…Recent disasters have revealed complexities in the associated responses when considering the needs of potentially vulnerable populations (Redlener 2008;Baker et al 2012).…”

Emergency Information Forms for Children With Medical Complexity: A Simulation Study

“…The limited literature on use of EIFs in CMC includes consensus statements by academies and medical societies specifying contents of EIFs and advocating their use, 1,2 surveys of parents and practitioners, 16,26 as well as attempts to educate families 29 and implement EIFs in selected patient populations. 20,21,30 There is strong consensus among the pediatric and emergency medicine medical societies that CMC are a vulnerable patient population that requires critical information to be readily available to health care providers for delivery of optimal care during emergencies.…”