Symposium: Special Needs Requires Special Response During Emergencies

served as an outreach campaign to solicit input and ideas on how to encourage community participation and involvement in preparedness for emergencies at the local, county and state levels, and how communities can effectively assist those with disabilities. 

The conference, held Friday afternoon at Bergen Community College, was organized by Ridgewood Councilman Paul Aronsohn and moderated by Jim Thebery, Bergen County Division of Special Services Director.

With 56 million Americans classified with disabilities, a number representing 20 percent of the population, the seminar focused on "Planning for the Whole Community," an approach designed to provide guidance, tools, methods and strategies to integrate and coordinate emergency management to include individuals with access and functional needs, and those with physical and cognitive disabilities. 

The central focus of the "whole community" approach is to move beyond a government-only approach to emergency management and expand the emergency management team to include volunteers, agencies, faith and community-based organizations, the private sector, and the public to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate any type of critical situation.

Although many people with disabilities are identified because they are registered with various agencies or receive specialized services, there are approximately 15,000 people with disabilities on the state register who have no phone or television, experts said Friday. In an emergency situation, how can these people be reached?

Register Ready is a voluntary web based registry program that allows residents with special needs and their families, friends and associates an opportunity to provide information to emergency response agencies, so emergency responders can better plan to serve them in a disaster or other emergency.

New Milford Chief of Police and OEM Coordinator, Frank Papapietro, told Patch that although there are some residents with disabilities who have voluntarily registered, there are those who have not.

Whether a person has registered or not, first responders need to be prepared to assist in all situations, especially during a severe weather event, such as Irene, where people needed to be evacuated from their homes by boat. It helps first responders to have that information prior to being called to the scene so that they can be prepared.  

Mary Goepfert and Dwane Razzetti, two of the symposium's expert panelists, are working to put systems in place to get people with disabilities and their caregivers to "forward think" and plan ahead to prepare for emergencies and disasters before they happen. 

"When the emergency event is happening, resources are scarce," Goepfert told the audience of first responders, public officials, agency and program representatives, and people with disabilities. 

In emergency situations a municipality's resources are tested with those needing assistance often exceeding the resources. The government cannot be relied upon as the sole provider of services in times of extreme situations, such as Hurricane Irene and the October snow storm.

This "whole community" represents a social infrastructure that must be formed prior to any type of emergency in order to achieve effective results during a crisis. Razzetti said that CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams) is currently working with municipalities to accomplish this through pre-planning and pre-strategizing and has already trained "thousands of people in Bergen County" on how to respond to emergency situations.  

CERT volunteers logged in 42,000 hours during Irene – they assisted in evacuations, shelters, and in helping people with their pets. The panel agreed that government would be "hard-pressed" to fill this gap.  

Goepfert also emphasized that personal planning is extremely important, especially for people with disabilities. "Don't wait for the emergency to hit before you wonder what to do," she said. "Set up a place where you can go if your power goes out." She said that if a person is electric dependent a plan should already be in place if the power goes out. 

Going forward Goepfert wants to borrow from a California program "Functional Assessment and Services Strike Team" (FAST). This team would include specialists in the following areas:

• Disabilities
• Mental Health
• Children
• Aging 
• Casework Manager

Government agencies, OEM, and Health and Human Services must all be involved with planning for FAST to be effective. 

Jim Flemming, a Regional Disability Integration Specialist, talked about contracting with qualified experts on how to communicate with people with cognitive impairment and communication difficulties. Interpreters are currently available at shelters; however, there should also be experts available to assist people with cognitive delay and or communication disorders. 

Also discussed was the simple solution of neighbor knowing neighbor so that in times of emergencies there is an awareness of the most vulnerable neighbors in need of assistance.