Emergency Preparedness Guide

for Agencies Providing Services to Individuals with Special Needs

New York City Office of Emergency Management

April 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION3

Purpose3

Scope4

Significance of Planning4

How to Use this Guide5

SECTION 1: INITIAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT6

Identification and Assessment of Clients6

Assessment of Agency Capabilities9

Develop a Communications Plan11

Employee Emergency Notification Plan11

Client Communication Plan13

SECTION 2: ONGOING ANNUAL ACTIVITIES15

Education and Awareness15

Maintenance: Review and Update Plans15

SECTION 3: GENERAL EMERGENCY PLANNING TOOLS16

SECTION 4: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES16

APPENDICES17

Appendix 1: Client Assessment Form Template17

Appendix 1A: Client Assessment Form Instructions Template24

Appendix 2: Agency Capabilities Assessment28

Appendix 3: Employee Emergency Contact List Template30

Appendix 4: Employee Emergency Notification Plan Checklist31

Appendix 5: Agency Evacuation Plan Worksheet33

Appendix 6: Agency Emergency Supply Checklist35

Appendix 7: Sample Vendor/Supplier List36

Appendix 8: Emergency Phone Number Template37

INTRODUCTION

Purpose

Delivering information to populations with special needs is challenging, especially in a place as large and diverse as New York City. Language, culture, demographics,geographic location, and physical, cognitive or mental capacities canimpact the way information is transmitted, received and acted upon. For the purposes of this guide, “populations with special needs” is defined as seniors, people with disabilities and anyone who may need extra assistance in an emergency situation. However, many portions of this guide may be useful to service agencies serving any population in New York City.

Because many service agencies provide a direct, trusted link to the populations they serve on a daily basis, they can play a significant role in the transmission of information about emergencies. A service agency may initially receive information about emergencies directly from a government agency, an umbrella organization, or trusted media sources. Such information may include hazardous weather forecasts, potential hazards to life and safety, and evacuation orders. It may also include pre-season preparedness information, which can be critical for helping clients to prepare for weather-related emergencies, such as coastal storms (including hurricanes), extreme summer heat, and severe winter weather.

One source of emergency information directed toward agencies that serve people with special needs is the Special Needs Advanced Warning System (AWS). The AWS is a set of tools for reaching out to pre-identified government agencies and non-governmental organizations that regularly provide services to seniors, people with disabilities, and people with health vulnerabilities. OEM will provide AWS agencies with targeted special needs information related to emergency situations or potential emergency situations in New York City such as hazardous weather forecasts, potential hazards to life safety, potential utility or transportation disruptions, health advisories, and evacuation orders. Agencies participating in AWS will receive this information and then convey it to their clients and contracted provider agencies.

In addition to receiving information from a trusted service agency, clients may also elect to sign up for Notify NYC – New York City’s pilot emergency public communication system. Notify NYC includes different forms of direct messaging, including email, text messaging, and telephone. Anyone can sign up for the service, including agency staff members and individual clients. For information, see

To help agencies prepare to receive and use emergency information, this Guide includes tools for:

  • Pre-season internal agency hazard and capabilities assessments;
  • Pre-season and ongoing assessment and identification of clients who may be contacted and/or notified before, during, or after an emergency;
  • Steps to ensure basic levels of client emergency preparedness; and
  • Creating and maintaining agency communications plans with employees and clients.

Scope

This guide is not intended to be an all-inclusive continuity of operations planning guide. It is primarily focused on preparedness for emergencies such as coastal storms (including hurricanes), although many tools in the guide may also be usefulfor agencies to enhance planning effortsaround response to and recovery from other types of emergencies, such as extreme heat, severe winter weather, power outages, major transit disruptions, and pandemic influenza.

Additionally, this guide does not directly cover post-emergency recovery and issues related to resettlement of clients if they have evacuated. Since clients with special needs may rely on certain services to be in place before they can resume their daily routines, there are some references for agencies to consider so they will be able to continue and/or rapidly restore critical client services in the event of a significant emergency.

This guide is informational, containing suggestions to be used as an agency deems appropriate and to the extent that the agency finds them useful. The guide is not intended to provide definitive direction.

Significance of Planning

An emergency can disrupt the everyday functions of an agency at any time. An emergency event could include a power outage, fire, or internal systems failure, or something more widespread that affects all of New York City or beyond. An event such as a hurricane can create conditions that are unsafe for all New Yorkers. Those with special needs need to payspecial attention to planning ahead, to make sure that the everyday systems they may rely upon are in place. To minimize the damaging effects to clients, staff and property, it is critical for the agencies that serve them to have plans and protocols in place to:

  • Communicate with staff, clients, board of directors, vendors and other partners;
  • Promote the safety of staff, clients and volunteers;
  • Maintain mission critical functions and services;
  • Protect facilities, equipment, records and other data;
  • Resume operations as quickly as possible.

How to Use this Guide

This guide provides emergency planning recommendations specific to the tasks related to agencies’ ability to receive and use emergency information. It can be used by agencies taking their first steps in planning and will also be useful for agencies that need to enhance and/or update existing plans to make sure they address readiness and capabilities.

This guide is structured into three sections with the assumption that the initial planning detailed in Section 1 will occur as soon as practicable after agencies receive the guide.

The first section of this guide, Initial Planning and Assessment, provides planning guidance to agencies to ensure their readiness to receive and use emergency information. It includes concrete steps for:

  • Agency capability and hazard assessments;
  • Client assessments; and
  • Development of communications plans.

The second section, Ongoing Annual Activities, addresses ways to provide pre-season education and awareness tools to clients and provides tips for keeping agency plans updated.

The third section, General Emergency Planning Tools, introduces additional worksheets and checklists that may be useful to agencies in their continuity planning process.

Throughout the guide there will be references to checklists, templates and other resources that can be used to help agencies in the creation of new plans or the review of existing ones. Depending on the agency type, size, culture and other factors, these tools will need to be customized to fit each individual agency’s needs and the distinct needs of the clients served. The successful use of emergency informationis critically reliant upon the basic assumption that participating agencies have pre-identified clients with special needs and have a realistic plan in place to relay messages to them.

SECTION 1: INITIAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT

Overview

By planning ahead, agencies will be able to initiate notification procedures to clients in affected areas and maintain critical client services in the event of an emergency.

This section details the following actions:

  • Identification and assessment of clients potentially in need of support;
  • Assessment of agency capabilities to communicate messages to identified clients; and
  • Creation of a communications plan.

The following tools are referenced in this section and can be found in the designated Appendix location.

Tool / Appendix
Client Assessment Form Template / 1
Client Assessment Form Instructions Template / 1A
Agency Capabilities Assessment / 2
Employee Emergency Contact List Template / 3
Employee Emergency Notification Plan Checklist / 4

Identification and Assessment of Clients

Agencies can prepare to push relevant emergency information to all their clients and engage in active two-way communication with their most vulnerable clients by taking the following steps:

Step 1: Outreach: Identify and/or assessclients potentially needing support

Agencies need to assess all clients to identify who may be impacted by an emergency, including who may need to evacuate, where they will go and how they will get there. They also need to determine who may shelter-in-place (stay where they are) and whether they have the appropriate plans in place to do so safely. The Client Assessment Form Template (Appendix 1) and Instructions Template (Appendix 1A) provide guidance for agencies to determine which clients may need assistance in the event of an emergency (including a hurricane), their location, the method by which they can receive messages, and other considerations.

Agencies may use the form and instructions as they are with minor modifications. Areas that must be developed by each agency are highlighted in both documents. Ideally, however, agencies should adjust current information collection and assessment methods already used, to reflect hurricane/other disaster specific information needs. Agencies should also consider how the information will be used, stored, and accessed, and work with their legal counsel to discuss confidentiality issues and develop any necessary release of information language.

In addition, when used in conjunction with the “Ready New York for Seniors and People with Disabilities” guide (available at the assessment tool is a way to assist clients in the critical task of personal emergency preparedness. The assessment tool is designed to be completed through a one-on-one interaction of a staff member or volunteer with a client. This can be done through regular in-home visits for home-based care agencies, or by working with clients who participate in neighborhood-based programs such as Senior Centers. Instructions in Appendix 1A are designed to be used by staff/volunteers conducting assessments that have no familiarity with this larger document.

After doing a one-time campaign to collect the necessary assessment information, it is important for the organization to incorporate this emergency assessment into the standard operating procedures for new clients and into the update and maintenance of information for existing clients (at a minimum, information should be updated every 6 months).

Step 2: Organize your data
Once the information is collected in Step 1, it should be compiled into a database, or at the very least included in client hard files. Electronic and online databases permit multiple staff members to update the information and to access the information outside of the office, which may be important during an emergency. Such databases may also speed the process of identifying and sorting the client information to determine who should be contacted and in what order or priority (factoring in the type of the emergency).
Agencies should consider how information from the Client Assessment Form (Appendix 1)will be used,before creating fields and entering information in a database or organizing hard files. Here are two examples to illustrate this:
  • If agencies are prioritizing call lists to contact the most vulnerable clients first, the database must have a field that indicates the status of each client to assist in determining his/her priority level.This may vary by the type of emergency (e.g. the most vulnerable clients during a hurricane may not be the same as the most vulnerable clients during extreme summer heat).Care should be taken to not assign arbitrary values for the vulnerability status of a client.
  • The Client Assessment Form includes information on client preparedness. Instead of adding a field for every item on the check list, agencies should decide on a basic level of preparedness and indicate in a “preparedness” field whether the client meets those criteria. Include only information that will be used. Think of other fields/or paper forms that will be needed to carry out all the actions in your Client Communication Plan.

Agencies should also consider using its database to capture information about communication needs that are outlined in their Client Communications Plan and create reports/lists to enable implementation of each section.

Step 3: Create a “Client Communication Plan”

Agencies must have a plan for how they will push out messages to clients and, ideally, interact with their most vulnerable clients. See Client Communication Plan, page 13, below for guidance.

Assessment of Agency Capabilities

Once the clients have been pre-identified and their information coordinated into a list or database, the next step is to assess agency abilities to activate and carry outthe client notifications upon receiving emergency information.

Step 1: Assess current agency capabilities under “normal circumstances”

This capabilities assessment includes an examination of the outreach capacities, processes and resources currently in place. In other words, an internal review of whether your agency has the human resources, client assessment information and technology in place to activate its Client CommunicationPlan24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including:

Designated staff assigned to initiate the Client Communication Plan, and a backup if the primary person is unavailable

  • Be surethat staff have continuous 24/7 access to the email accounts or phone lines that have been signed up to receive emergency information and ensure that their contact information is current.

Designated team of staff to carry out the notifications, and a backup plan if staff cannot get to work

  • Consider the use of volunteers and/or a mutual aid agreement to work with staff from another agency (including agencies nearby and at some physical distance).

Ability to access the pre-identified client “list” or “database” from inside and outside your primary office facility

  • Lists and/or databases should be stored in multiple places in case the usual facility becomes inaccessible, but remain aware of agency, legal and other constraints around client confidentiality.
  • Consider different media, e.g., hard drive, flash drive, hard copies, web-based, and be sure that the information is consistently and simultaneously updated in all locations or formats.

A method for making the client notifications (e.g., telephone, email, in person) and a backup system if possible

  • This will depend on both agency access to phone, email and fax, as well as client’s access to these types of communication methods.

The “Agency Capabilities Assessment” in Appendix 2 is a checklist to be used as a guide for participating agencies to determine their readiness level.

Step 2: Perform an agency hazard analysis to determine risks to staff, facilities and technology before and during a storm and other emergencies

Now that your agency has determined its current capabilities and made plans to improve them if needed, it is important to analyze the hazards that may affect your ability to carry out notifications to staff and clients and/or to continue critical client services (for example, if an evacuation is ordered and your facility or staff are in an affected area).

Consider the following as you assess the vulnerability of your own agency to the hazards associated with a coastal storm:

.

Hurricane season is from June 1-November 30, with the greatest potential for hurricanes in New York City from August to October.

Determine whether any of your agency’s facilities are in a coastal storm evacuation zone. Go to andenter the address of your building location(s). You can also call 311 (TTY: 212-504-4115) for this information.

Even if your agency is outside an evacuation zone, you may still face hurricane-related hazards including high winds, flooding, tornadoes, and/or loss of power or water. These hazards can cause broken windows, damage to buildings and roofs, damage to vehicles, loss of access to data, email and phone systems, and loss of essential utilities. As you examine these other hazards, consider the safety of your facilities, evacuation plans, the effect on your notification capabilities and your ability to resume operations post-storm.

Consider if staff live in hurricane evacuation zones, and encourage all staff to engage in individual preparedness activities for themselves and their families. Get copies of OEM’s “Ready New York” materials through 311 (TTY: 212-504-4115) or online at

Survey your facility and make plans to protect windows, outsideequipment, vehicles and structures. Prepare to move records, computers and other itemswithin your facility to another location, or off of floors that may be vulnerable to flooding.

Identify your top five critical services and assets and make plans to protect and/or restore them.

Work with your IT department or an outside IT consultant to identify critical systems and back them up.

Assess the vulnerability of your agency to hazards associated with other types of emergencies:

Make contingency staffing plans for an emergency that would greatly reduce staff levels, such as pandemic influenza. Consider the need for telecommuting for an extended period of time and whether your agency will be able to perform its critical services with a high rate of staff absenteeism.See Section 3, General Emergency Planning Tools, for information on developing contingency plans for your agency and staff.

Develop a Communications Plan

In the previous sections, you identified clients potentially in need of assistance and determined agency capabilities and methods for contacting clients. Next, you should develop a detailed “Communications Plan” if you do not already have one. This Communications Plan should include a protocol for contacting all employees in the event of an emergency, and a separate plan for client notifications.

Employee Emergency Notification Plan

Be prepared to provide all employees with information on when, if and how to report to work if a coastal storm is expected, and what role, if any, they will need to play in the notification of clients.