There are many areas of Preparedness but for the most part, it’s a simple prospect. That is until you factor in someone with physical or mental disabilities or mental health conditions. These conditions require a fundamental change in how you plan for different emergencies.
Everyone should have plans to deal with various emergency situations and have emergency supplies to sustain themselves for a minimum of 72 hours or even longer when possible, especially those who may have difficulty leaving their homes as it is.
Preparedness and Disabilities
Just because you have a mobility problem due to a knee injury, or your grandmother has a failing heart, or your son has ADHD or any number of conditions that have 3 or 4 letter acronyms, or someone in your family is an alcoholic, does not change the fact that someday you may not have access to modern-day medical care, transportation, utilities, law enforcement protection or other modern day amenities like electricity, water, sewer, and heat.
The length of time that you will have to endure without these things will vary depending on the type of emergency or disaster you are dealing with. Any change in routine is a stress-inducing event and when you have other medical problems it can be even more so, especially for those with mental health problems.
When it comes to preparedness there are two broad areas of focus; sheltering in place (bugging in) and Evacuation (bugging out). A well-rounded approach is to have a plan to do both. You need to plan on staying put with the option of leaving if needed. I wrote an article about when you may want to bug in and when you may want to bug out, check it out here Bug In or Bug Out? – A Reality Check For those with disabilities or mental health problems those guidelines will need to be altered for their specific situation.
One thing that will be different is the addition of a Medical Bug Out Bag. A Medical Bug Out Bag will need to contain all the necessary medications, information, and equipment to sustain the individual’s needs until they can make it to a better location that can support them.
There are 4 basic types of disabilities. Each has its unique problems to contend with and each will have its own unique solutions.
- Mobility Impairment
- Sensory Impairment
- Cognitive Disabilities
- Medical Disabilities
It’s important to understand what conditions you are dealing with, whether you have a disability or you are a caregiver of someone with a disability. You also need to assess what types of disasters or emergencies you may have to contend with and how your situation will be impacted by those disasters or emergencies.
A Support System
When having to deal with a disaster or emergency it’s important to have people around you to help you out when things get rough but when you have a disability it may be absolutely necessary for survival.
For people that require someone to help them with everyday tasks, it is important to have a couple of people that can assist, if the person who usually performs those task is unable to. The best options are people who live nearby, a neighbor, friend or relative, someone who is emotionally invested in your well being. Others may not show up when you need them the most, they may have their own crisis that they are dealing with.
Don’t leave it to chance that they will come help when things get bad. It needs to be planned ahead of time who will come to help during an emergency.
Basic Preps
We are all human and whether we have a disability or not we still have all the same basic needs; air, shelter, water, and food. FEMA recommends having a 72-hour survival kit. For anyone who is serious about being prepared for real emergencies, your go bag or bug out bag has a minimum of 72-hours worth of supplies but I strongly urge you to have a minimum of 2 weeks of supplies if not more.
You need to have enough supplies to sustain your self without having to leave your home and needs to cover everything from food and water to heat and sanitation. For a complete guide on what you need in your home check out this article; Bugging In: A Complete Guide For Beginners
Beyond The Basics
Having the basic preps will get you going in the right direction but there are some things that will really help out when things get bad.
LIGHTING – Although lighting is covered in the basics, having hands free (headlamps) and automated back up lighting systems will make all the difference if the power goes out without warning.
COMMUNICATION – Trying to stay in touch is just good situational awareness but if you are unable to move about very will or are bedridden being able to communicate with your neighbor or your support group is vitally important.
For this, I recommend getting some Midland 2-way FRS/GMRS radios. Although I would normally recommend Beofeng UV5R HAM radios, in this situation, the Midland Radios are much easier to operate and are pretty durable. If a longer range in required then you may have to go with a HAM radio or a high output GMRS radio.
Mobility Impairment
Mobility disabilities are what most people think of when you talk about someone having a disability. Whether someone has trouble walking because of bad knees or are confined to a wheelchair, their mobility is impaired to some degree.
Bugging In – Bugging in or sheltering in place, is almost always the best and most preferred thing to do unless there is a direct threat to your home or dwelling. When you have a disability that limits your mobility you need to make sure that you store your emergency supplies so that if you had to get them yourself you would be able to.
Bugging Out – For those with mobility problems, your bug out plan must accommodate your specific situation. More than likely you will be using a vehicle. Depending on your location, bugging out when the event that has caused you to leave, has already happened may likely lead you into a situation worse than what you left.
To avoid being caught in traffic or impassable roads, the best course of action is to bug out before something happens. Obviously, only certain types of disasters will give enough warning to allow for pre-event evacuation but it is the only way to guarantee a safe evacuation.
Sensory Impairment
Did you know that 95% of the information our brains collect about the world around us is from our eyes and ears? Being blind or deaf can create some serious problems when it comes to dealing with emergency situations. Having a sensory impairment can affect one’s ability to communicate and reduces one’s situational awareness. The two main types of sensory impairments are blindness and deafness each has their unique problems to deal with.
Sight Impairment – We navigate the world primarily using our eyesight. Those who have problems with sight will most likely want to shelter in place, as this is preferred, that is unless you have someone who can assist in your bug out.
Hearing Impairment – Where our eyes provide us with information about the world in front of our head and make communication much easier. Our ears also provide us with cues for our eyes to focus on from all around us or at distance. Most people do not know sign language, so having support from those who can, will make communication with others much easier.
For those with hearing impairments bugging out will be much easier but as always should be a last resort.
Cognitive Disabilities
Cognitive disabilities cover a wide range of conditions like general learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD), traumatic brain injury, Down Syndrome and Autism, just to name a few.
Some with Cognitive disabilities are high functioning and others require constant help and/or supervision. This places the burden of preparedness on caregivers. As a caregiver of someone with a cognitive disability or mental health condition, it is your responsibility to make the necessary plans and preps.
Many of these conditions require medications to effectively treat. So it’s important to keep an emergency supply of critical medications to get you or the person you care for though at least a couple of weeks without needing to make a trip to the pharmacy. Most of the time, even with really severe disasters, access to most supplies and services will usually return within a few days or at most, a couple of weeks.
One important thing you need to do is have a notebook or binder that has detailed information about medical history and what medications they are on, the doses of those medications and a list of name brand or generic alternatives.
Medical Disabilities
People with medical disabilities are those with conditions that require either constant care, daily/hourly medications or specialized equipment to have an acceptable quality of life. Some examples of these conditions are those with:
- Diabetes
- Cerebral Palsy
- Epilepsy
- Heart Failure
- Cancer
As noted previously, having an ample supply of required medications is vital. Keep in mind that some medications may require refrigeration.
Some medical conditions require special equipment that may need a power supply or batteries to operate. This means having the necessary power supply, adapters, and batteries to keep this equipment up and running.
As with most other disabilities, it is important to have a support network to assist you. Whether you are a caregiver or the one with a disability you need others to help. It is important to form that network now.
Long Term Disasters
When I talk about long term disasters, I’m referring to a disaster situation that lasts longer than a couple of weeks. In these situations, we would be in uncharted territory as most disasters have help and aid flowing well within a week, if not within hours.
Having a couple of months of food and supplies is not something that is too difficult or costly to attain if you do it a little at a time.
One concern with long term disasters that last longer than a couple of months is at some point emergency medication supplies will start running out. Now is the time to be researching natural medicine alternatives for the medications that you may need access to.
There are a number of disasters that have the potential to prevent help from arriving in a timely manner. For more information, check out this article; Why You Need To Start “Prepping” Today!