“3 tips for preventing heat stroke” – The Conversation
“Heat stroke is when a person’s core body temperature rises too high – often more than 104 F (40 C) – because high environmental temperatures and humidity prevent the body from cooling itself through sweating and breathing.”
by Gabriel Neal
“As a primary care physician who often treats patients with heat-related illnesses, I know all too well how heat waves create spikes in hospitalizations and deaths related to ‘severe nonexertional hyperthermia,’ or what most people call ‘heat stroke.’
“Heat stroke is when a person’s core body temperature rises too high – often more than 104 F (40 C) – because high environmental temperatures and humidity prevent the body from cooling itself through sweating and breathing. As heat stroke develops, a patient experiences rapid heart rate, ragged breathing, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps and confusion. Eventually the patient may lose consciousness entirely.
“Without medical intervention, heat stroke is often fatal. On average, about 658 Americans die each year from heat stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Victims of heat stroke can be any age, but most often it strikes the elderly –”
Continue reading this article at The Conversation – click here.
“From Evacuation Plans to Insurance Coverage: Emergency Preparedness For Seniors” – MoneyGeek
by Sara East
“When a weather emergency or natural disaster blows through a city, there’s little time to prepare. While many people are capable of quickly evacuating during an emergency, this is not the case for some seniors. According to the Red Cross, approximately half of all deaths resulting from Hurricane Katrina were among people aged 75 years or older.
“The impact on seniors during an emergency does not end when the crisis ends. After a natural disaster, financial limitations can make it more difficult for seniors living on a fixed income to recover from a natural disaster. For family members, caregivers and seniors themselves, having an emergency preparedness plan in place can keep your loved ones safe and help them maintain financial security.
“The Impact of Weather Emergencies on Seniors by the Numbers
“Seniors are consistently among the hardest hit physically and financially when it comes to natural disasters and other emergencies. A historical look at natural disasters and the percentage of deaths of people ages 60 and older shows that having an emergency evacuation plan for seniors is crucial.”
Continue reading this article at Money Geek, click here.
ALSO included at the aboce link:
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The Impact of Weather Emergencies on Seniors by the Numbers
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Why Older Adults Are More Vulnerable During Weather Emergencies
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Preparing Seniors for an Emergency
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Recovering After a Natural Disaster or Emergency
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Expert Advice on Senior Emergency Preparedness
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Resources for Seniors and Caregivers Before and After an Emergency
FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Reimbursement Program Opens Today
Watch this video (Providing Financial Assistance for COVID-19-Related Funeral Expenses) click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgvN_9m58Z0
Has someone in your family died from COVID-19? Or do you know someone that is in this position? FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Reimbursement program opens for applications today. Click here to get more information on how to apply and be sure to share it with your networks to make sure everyone entitled to reimbursement has the information.
FREE Emergency Preparedness Workshop for Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that serve older adults
This workshop addresses emergency preparedness for county-based organizations. The target audience is emergency planners for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, senior community centers, senior housing, adult day care centers, home meal delivery services, charitable organizations, area agencies on aging and other who provide services to older adults.
Download this file as a .pdf to enlarge and engage the clickable registration link; click on the graphic or here.
“Nursing homes grapple with a dual crisis: preparing for hurricane season amid the Covid-19 pandemic” – STATNews
“A truck transports nursing home staff and patients during the evacuation of a nursing home due to rising flood waters in the wake of Hurricane Florence in 2018. ALEX EDELMAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES”
Though scenes as the one above are ones not common in the Berks-Lancaster-Lebanon County areas, hurricanes and flooding could happen. In Pennsylvania and “worldwide, flooding is probably the number one cause of losses from natural events.”
And from time to time, the area is visited by hurricanes and super storms.
“Nursing homes face an impossible decision during hurricane season this year — whether or not to evacuate their residents amid the Covid-19 pandemic, risking the health and well-being of their patients and staff in the process.
“Even in normal times, evacuation decisions are tough: Research shows that moving frail residents can exacerbate already burdensome health conditions and increase hospitalizations. But failing to evacuate can leave residents vulnerable to power outages, flooding, and even death. This year, as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the Southeast in particular, that decision is even harder — hospitals are already overburdened and social distancing isn’t necessarily possible in evacuation vans or temporary shelters.
“Nursing home residents are also far more vulnerable to Covid-19 than the general population.” – Click here to continue reading this article at STATNews.
Evacuation is just one of the Incident Response Guides that’s listed in the Nursing Home Incident Command System.
“Who Is ‘Worthy?’ Deaf-Blind People Fear That Doctors Won’t Save Them from the Coronavirus” – The New Yorker
“The lawyer and disability-rights activist Haben Girma, who is deaf-blind, said that she is terrified that ‘hospitals facing scarce resources will decide not to save our lives.’” – Photograph by Celeste Sloman / Redux
“Rebecca Alexander volunteered shortly after Governor Andrew Cuomo appealed for mental-health professionals to help counsel first responders traumatized by the covid-19 crisis. A New York psychotherapist, she has taken calls from a young nurse who had trouble sleeping because she was haunted by the sounds of dying patients gasping for breath. A doctor described getting instructed not to intubate anyone over eighty on the day his mother turned eighty-two. A pediatric nurse who specialized in infant diseases recounted her lack of training after being abruptly transferred to caring for adults in acute respiratory failure. Several confessed their own extreme distress at pushing the limits of their bodies physically and emotionally. ‘Constantly being on the front lines is taking a toll on them,’ she told me.
“What none of the people pouring out their problems to Alexander knew is that she is legally deaf and blind—and has her own deep fears about how the new coronavirus threatens the estimated 2.4 million Americans, and millions more across the globe, who, like her, rely on touch to communicate, navigate, and care for themselves. ‘When you don’t have vision or hearing or both, you rely heavily on other senses,’ she said. ‘For us, that other sense is touch.’ But touch is now the most prevalent means of spreading covid-19.
“How ready is your county for Covid-19? Check out STAT’s new preparedness tool” – STAT: Morning Rounds
“As U.S. cities slowly begin to take control of the Covid-19 pandemic and rural America braces for a wave of cases, some counties may be better prepared to deal with the outbreak than others. A new dashboard, produced in a STAT collaboration with the Center on Rural Innovation and Applied XL, offers a county-by-county look at how places like those in rural Vermont, New Hampshire, and parts of the Midwest may have the resources to tackle Covid-19.
“Other areas, such as those in the Deep South, may be at high risk of facing problems when handling the outbreak. The tool, and the trends it reveals, shows that Covid-19 may further exacerbate the urban-rural health divide that plagued the U.S. even before Covid-19 emerged and take a crushing toll on the already vulnerable populations in rural areas.
“The dashboard also points to the places at higher risk. Some are areas where concerns have already been raised — including segments of the Deep South, where some governors were slow to implement physical distancing measures, and sparsely populated expanses in Western states outside larger cities. Others, like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which has suffered hospital closures, have received less attention.
“‘There are variations in terms of capacity and demographics in rural areas around the country, and those variations can have life-and-death implications in this pandemic,’ said Matt Dunne, the executive director for the Center on Rural Innovation, which was established in 2017 to identify ways to close the urban-rural opportunity gap.
The National EAS and WEA test will be held on the backup date of October 3, 2018, beginning at 2:18 p.m. EDT. – FEMA
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and Emergency Alert System (EAS) on the backup date of October 3, 2018 due to ongoing response efforts to Hurricane Florence. The WEA portion of the test commences at 2:18 p.m. EDT, and the EAS portion follows at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether improvements are needed.
“The WEA test message will be sent to cell phones that are connected to wireless providers participating in WEA.”
Click here to continue reading more about this event.
Berks - Lancaster - Lebanon LINK Service Area 
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