Climate crisis risks to elderly health: strategies for effective promotion and response.

The climate crisis significantly impacts the health and well-being of older adults, both directly and indirectly. This issue is of growing concern in Canada due to the country's rapidly accelerating warming trend and expanding elderly population. This article serves a threefold purpose: (i) outlining the impacts of the climate crisis on older adults, (ii) providing a descriptive review of existing policies with a specific focus on the Canadian context, and (iii) promoting actionable recommendations. Our review reveals the application of current strategies, including early warning systems, enhanced infrastructure, sustainable urban planning, healthcare access, social support systems, and community engagement, in enhancing resilience and reducing health consequences among older adults. Within the Canadian context, we then emphasize the importance of establishing robust risk metrics and evaluation methods to prepare for and manage the impacts of the climate crisis efficiently. We underscore the value of vulnerability mapping, utilizing geographic information to identify regions where older adults are most at risk. This allows for targeted interventions and resource allocation. We recommend employing a root cause analysis approach to tailor risk response strategies, along with a focus on promoting awareness, readiness, physician training, and fostering collaboration and benchmarking. These suggestions aim to enhance disaster risk management for the well-being and resilience of older adults in the face of the climate crisis.

Designing user-centered decision support systems for climate disasters: What information do communities and rescue responders need during floods?

Flooding events are the most common natural hazard globally, resulting in vast destruction and loss of life. An effective flood emergency response is necessary to lessen the negative impacts of flood disasters. However, disaster management and response efforts face a complex scenario. Simultaneously, regular citizens attempt to navigate the various sources of information being distributed and determine their best course of action. One thing is evident across all disaster scenarios: having accurate information and clear communication between citizens and rescue personnel is critical. This research aims to identify the diverse needs of two groups, rescue operators and citizens, during flood disaster events by investigating the sources and types of information they rely on and information that would improve their responses in the future. This information can improve the design and implementation of existing and future spatial decision support systems (SDSSs) during flooding events. This research identifies information characteristics crucial for rescue operators and everyday citizens' response and possible evacuation to flooding events by qualitatively coding survey responses from rescue responders and the public. The results show that including local input in SDSS development is crucial for improving higher-resolution flood risk quantification models. Doing so democratizes data collection and analysis, creates transparency and trust between people and governments, and leads to transformative solutions for the broader scientific community.

Managing CBRN mass casualty incidents at hospitals-Find a simple solution for a complex problem: A pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) incidents are a major challenge for emergency medical services and the involved hospitals, especially if decontamination needs to be performed nearby or even within the hospital campus. The University Hospital Wuerzburg has developed a comprehensive and alternative CBRN response plan. The focus of this study was to proof the practicability of the concept, the duration of the decontamination process, and the temperature management. METHODS: The entire decontamination area can be deployed 24/7 by the hospitals technical staff. Fire and rescue services are responsible for the decontamination process itself. This study was designed as full-scale exercise with 30 participants. RESULTS: The decontamination area was ready for operation within 30 minutes. The decontamination of the four simulated patients took 5.5 ± 0.6 minutes (mean ± SD). At the end of the decontamination process, the temperature of the undressed upper body of the training patients was 27.25 ± 1°C (81.05 ± 2°F) (mean ± SD) and the water in the shower was about 35°C (95°F). CONCLUSION: The presented concept is comprehensive and simple for a best possible care during CBRN incidents at hospitals. It ensures wet decontamination by Special Forces, while the technical requirements are created by the hospital.

Assessing primary healthcare disaster preparedness: a study in Northern Italy.

AIM: The aim of this paper is to outline the steps taken to develop an operational checklist to assess primary healthcare (PHC) all-hazards disaster preparedness. It then describes a study testing the applicability of the checklist. BACKGROUND: A PHC approach is an essential foundation for health emergency and disaster risk management (H-EDRM) because it can prevent and mitigate risks prior to disasters and support an effective response and recovery, thereby contributing to communities' and countries' resilience across the continuum of the disaster cycle. This approach is in line with the H-EDRM framework, published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019, which emphasizes a whole-of-health system approach in disaster management and highlights the importance of integrating PHC into countries' H-EDRM. Nevertheless, literature focusing on how to practically integrate PHC into disaster management, both at the facility and at the policy level, is in its infancy. As of yet, there is no standardized, validated way to assess the specific characteristics that render PHC prepared for disasters nor a method to evaluate its role in H-EDRM. METHODS: The checklist was developed through an iterative process that leveraged academic literature and expert consultations at different stages of the elaboration process. It was then used to assess primary care facilities in a province in Italy. FINDINGS: The checklist offers a practical instrument for assessing and enhancing PHC disaster preparedness and for improving planning, coordination, and funding allocation. The study identified three critical areas for improvement in the province's PHC disaster preparedness. First, primary care teams should be more interdisciplinary. Second, primary care services should be more thoroughly integrated into the broader health system. Third, there is a notable lack of awareness of H-EDRM principles among PHC professionals. In the future, the checklist can be elaborated into a weighted tool to be more broadly applicable.

Investigating Factors Influencing Disaster Preparedness Perception of Nurses in Turkey:A Meta-Analytic Approach.

AIM AND BACKGROUND: In contemporary healthcare, the crucial importance of disaster preparedness and response within the nursing profession has gained recognition. Considering the elevated probability of encountering numerous disasters in Türkiye, it is noteworthy that limited research has been conducted in this domain. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the related factors to nurses' disaster preparedness Türkiye through a meta-analysis method. METHODS: The study was conducted based on PRISMA guidelines. We searched the national databases in Türkiye and Web of Science Core Collection. Descriptive studies published in Turkish or English between 01.01.2000-31.12.2021 in Türkiye were included in the study to derive the pooled outputs. RESULTS: A total of nine studies, encompassing a sample size of 3222 nurses, met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis' results revealed that gender and prior experience with disasters did not exhibit a statistically significant impact on nurses' disaster preparedness (p>0.05). Conversely, engaging in disaster education programs, familiarizing oneself with disaster plans, and actively participating in disaster drills were found to have a significant positive effect on nurses' preparedness for disasters (p<0.05). However, it is worth noting that the analysis of disaster experience exhibited substantial heterogeneity (I2=85.6%), indicating variations among the included studies. Similarly, the analysis related to reading disaster plans also demonstrated high heterogeneity (I2=77.7%). CONCLUSION: Based on the available evidence from the meta-analysis, it can be concluded that receiving disaster education, reading disaster plans, and participating in disaster drills have a positive and significant impact on nurses' perception of disaster preparedness.

Exploring Volunteer Pharmacists' Experiences in Responding to 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study.

OBJECTIVE: Pharmacists are vital in disaster response efforts, dispensing essential medications, managing pharmacy services, consulting, and educating survivors regarding their medications. Their contributions, however, are often underrepresented in scientific literature. This study aimed to explore the experiences of pharmacists who provided pharmacy services to meet the pharmaceutical needs of the survivors after 2 major earthquakes in Türkiye in 2023. METHODS: This study adopted a phenomenological approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to invite pharmacists who provided pharmacy services to survivors. Interview transcripts were analyzed following an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: In total, 15 pharmacists were interviewed. Four main overarching themes "response to the earthquake," "preparedness for the earthquake," "experiences during service delivery," and "mental and physical experiences" were developed. CONCLUSIONS: From participants' experiences, it is essential to expand the clinical responsibilities of pharmacists and train them in providing wound care, administering immunization, and prescribing. Pharmacists should be integrated as essential members of disaster health teams. International health organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are encouraged to work collaboratively and develop disaster management plans including pharmacists in early responders. This might help mitigate the deficiencies and overcome challenges in health-care systems to provide effective patient-centered care by health professionals and respond effectively to disasters.

An assessment of nurses' perceived and actual household emergency preparedness.

Nurses' household preparedness is critical if they are to avoid role conflict and report for duty during an emergency. To date, the alignment between nurses' perceived and actual household preparedness remains under examined. Investigating one of these variables in isolation fails to consider that perceived and actual household preparedness must be high and aligned. If misaligned, vulnerabilities could surface during emergencies, like concerns about family safety, potentially impacting a nurse's commitment to duty during a crisis, or nurses may lack the actual preparedness to continue working long hours during an emergency. An online questionnaire was distributed to registered nurses in Ireland. The questionnaire was informed by a review of the literature and captured nurses' perceived and actual household preparedness, attitudes towards and exposure to a range of emergencies, and pertinent demographic characteristics. The results showed a relationship between how nurses view their household preparedness and their actual preparedness. Regression analyses indicate that while there is an overlap, the factors associated with how prepared nurses think they are and how prepared they are can differ. This means that strategies to boost actual preparedness may differ from those needed to boost perceived preparedness. This finding underscores the importance of psychosocial preparedness. Feeling prepared is crucial as it can influence how one responds in an emergency. Considering both the perceived and actual aspects of household preparedness can lead to a more effective response during emergencies.

Vulnerability, Preparedness, and Previous Experience of Disasters Among the Population of a High Hazard Region-Rural Southern Sindh, Pakistan.

A cross-sectional, mixed-method study was conducted in Badin, a rural area in southern Sindh, which is considered a high-risk disaster zone, to assess the vulnerability, preparedness, and disaster experiences of the coastal population. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the villages, study area, and 3 distinct populations (I, II, and III). Family heads of households were recruited for population I, village heads for population II, and community support group leaders from selected clusters for population III. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews. The results revealed that the population of rural southern Sindh, Pakistan, is highly vulnerable to disasters and exhibits lower levels of preparedness. The statistics about the vulnerable population may prove helpful in designing policies targeting specific groups to mitigate hazards in the future.

Digital Response to Physical Crises: The Role of an E-Health Platform in the 2023 Southern Turkey Earthquakes.

The catastrophic earthquakes that struck Southern Turkey in 2023 highlighted the pressing need for effective disaster management strategies. The unprecedented scale of the crisis tested the robustness of traditional healthcare responses and highlighted the potential of e-health solutions. Despite the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams, initial responders - primarily survivors of the earthquakes - faced an enormous challenge due to their lack of training in mass-casualty situations. An e-health platform was introduced to support these first responders, offering tools for drug calculations, case management guidelines, and a deep learning model for pediatric X-ray analysis. This commentary presents an analysis of the platform's use and contributes to the growing discourse on integrating digital health technologies in disaster response and management.

Enhanced Arabic disaster data classification using domain adaptation.

Natural disasters, like pandemics and earthquakes, are some of the main causes of distress and casualties. Governmental crisis management processes are crucial when dealing with these types of problems. Social media platforms are among the main sources of information regarding current events and public opinion. So, they have been used extensively to aid disaster detection and prevention efforts. Therefore, there is always a need for better automatic systems that can detect and classify disaster data of social media. In this work, we propose enhanced Arabic disaster data classification models. The suggested models utilize domain adaptation to provide state-of-the-art accuracy. We used a standard dataset of Arabic disaster data collected from Twitter for testing the proposed models. Experimental results show that the provided models significantly outperform the previous state-of-the-art results.

Global prediction of extreme floods in ungauged watersheds.

Floods are one of the most common natural disasters, with a disproportionate impact in developing countries that often lack dense streamflow gauge networks1. Accurate and timely warnings are critical for mitigating flood risks2, but hydrological simulation models typically must be calibrated to long data records in each watershed. Here we show that artificial intelligence-based forecasting achieves reliability in predicting extreme riverine events in ungauged watersheds at up to a five-day lead time that is similar to or better than the reliability of nowcasts (zero-day lead time) from a current state-of-the-art global modelling system (the Copernicus Emergency Management Service Global Flood Awareness System). In addition, we achieve accuracies over five-year return period events that are similar to or better than current accuracies over one-year return period events. This means that artificial intelligence can provide flood warnings earlier and over larger and more impactful events in ungauged basins. The model developed here was incorporated into an operational early warning system that produces publicly available (free and open) forecasts in real time in over 80 countries. This work highlights a need for increasing the availability of hydrological data to continue to improve global access to reliable flood warnings.

Business continuity plan in the management and operations of hospitals: First experience to certify the PDTA processes with the requirements defined by ISO 22301:2019 in emergency medical services.

BACKGROUND: A business continuity plan (BCP) facilitates the performance of primary functions during emergencies or other situations that can disrupt normal operations. If risk management is done analytically, a business impact analysis (BIA), according to ISO 22301 certification, makes it possible to define the best strategy for supporting the company's assets and image, optimizing the operational efficiency of service recovery and redesigning spaces for health. Since 2015, our healthcare company has embarked on a certification process for all sectors and activities through the implementation and development of diagnostic and therapeutic paths for operational diagnos-tic-therapeutic-assistance pathways (PDTAs). PDTA processes are all certified by the ISO 9001:2015 management system hospital. Our hospital is the first healthcare company to have obtained ISO 22301:2019 certification concerning PDTA processes, offering patients the highest standards of quality and safety of care in emergency medical services. METHODS: The formal BCP process includes several steps prior to the creation of a BCP: create a BCP team, conduct a BIA, determine the continuity plan by using the results of the analyses, and conduct training and exercises to educate staff and improve the BCP. RESULTS: From the BIA analysis, the team identified the time-employee PDTAs in company paths under emergency and urgency: acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), TRAUMA, and STROKE, providing for a planning path that took advantage of the duration of approximately 12 months. This path included the creation of structural procedures, the redefinition and updating of the PDTA in the light of the BCP, the preparation of exercises aimed at guaranteeing the business continuity objectives, and, finally, the awareness of our stakeholders regarding its correct application. CONCLUSIONS: With a business continuity management (BCM) system, companies take preventative measures to ensure they can start operations again quickly in an emergency. An exhaustive BIA in a hospital company reveals the effects when processes fail, how critical each process is for the company, and the amount of time required to get up and running again, thus providing the organization with important information for risk management. The measures for handling risks derived from this analysis are incorporated into a BCM system where the emergency plans are defined, too, so that business operations continue even in the event of an emergency.

Best emergency preparedness practices for livestock farmers.

The American cowboy or cowgirl is someone who possesses a unique set of skills that allows them to contribute to the agricultural economy. From feeding animals to land management to business negotiations, these individuals do so much to support the American family by helping to get food on the table across the country, and even beyond in foreign lands on occasion. Therefore, it is important that these livestock farmers know what they can do in the event of an emergency. Yet, many people in the agriculture industry do not know what the best practices are for securing their livelihoods from emergencies. The research material in this paper answers that question. This paper will start with a literature review that looks at key terms surrounding the world of livestock and emergencies. Then, this paper lays out a list of recommendations that livestock farmers can use to enhance their entire operation.