Elders Take Action! Preparing for Disaster:
A free Sunnyside workshop presented by the UT Medical School at Houston
HOUSTON – (June 16, 2009) – A free disaster planning workshop for Sunnyside neighborhood seniors and their caregivers will be hosted Wednesday, June 17, by The University of Texas Medical School at Houston’s Geriatric Education Center. Sunnyside was one of the Houston neighborhoods hardest hit by last year’s Hurricane Ike.
The event, hosted with the City of Houston Health and Human Services Department, will be held from 9-11:30 a.m. at the Sunnyside Multipurpose Center, 4605 Wilmington Street at Cullen.
The agenda includes John Halphen, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at The UT Medical School at Houston and coordinator of geriatric services at the Harris County Hospital District’s Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital; Barbara Reilly, Ph.D., also in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine; Francisco Sanchez Jr., public information officer with the Harris County Office of Emergency Management; William Talbott, senior trainer with the city’s Bureau of Public Health Preparedness; and Carolyn Scantlebury, project manager of the Focused Care Project agency.
Residents will receive information on the medical vulnerability of seniors; important phone numbers and contacts; a means to record emergency contact information and medications; information on food and storage from the Houston Food Bank; and advice on animal care and evacuation from the SPCA.
They also will be registering for Evacuation Disaster Transportation Assistance and the new Continuity of Clinical Information and Care Program called HealthQuilt. The pilot program, developed by The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences, will place basic medical information into a data base that can be accessed by hospital emergency care workers. This would be critical information if the senior were to arrive at the emergency room and be confused or unable to speak.
The Houston Geriatric Education Center at the UT Medical School at Houston was established by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to concentrate on vulnerable elderly people. Carmel B. Dyer, M.D., director of the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, is principal investigator. Sharon Ostwald, Ph.D., professor in the Center on Aging at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Nursing, is co-principal investigator.