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The Connecting Point

Volume 3 Issue 14 September 2nd, 2005

In This ISSUE:

1 Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs
2) A Guide to the Toolkit to help Hispanic Families
3) Coping with Crisis--Helping Children With Special Needs – Tips for School Personnel and Parents
4) Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI)

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1) Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs (A4497)(FEMA476) September is National Preparedness Month , a joint initiative between the Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross, is the annual reminder to make sure that you and your family are prepared.
Emergencies can happen at a moment's notice. Know your plans ahead of time so you are safer and more prepared. The above booklet gives tips on getting informed, making a plan, assembling a kit, and maintaining these plans for people with mobility problems or who have hearing, learning, or seeing disabilities. These tips provide you and your caregivers with considerations needed to help manage communications, equipment, pets and home hazards.
The booklet outlined below, publication A5091, is a full-size and downloadable version which gives greater detail and specific forms to record medical and emergency information, write a personal assessment of needs, and lists for supplies.
http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared/disability.pdf

Disability Preparedness Resource Center -
This disability preparedness web site provides practical information on how people with and without disabilities can prepare for an emergency. It also provides information for family members of, and service providers to, people with disabilities.  In addition, this site includes information for emergency planners and first responders to help them to better prepare for serving persons with disabilities.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0660.xml

2) A Guide to the Toolkit to help Hispanic Families This toolkit will show you what to expect from your schools, your teachers and your child, at all ages and grade levels. It will tell you how to help your child through school, what resources are available, and what you, your family and your community can do to help your child learn.
In English http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/toolkit.pd
En Espanol http://www.ed.gov/espanol/parents/academic/involve/toolkit/index.html

3) Coping with Crisis--Helping Children With Special Needs –
Tips for School Personnel and Parents- National School Psychologists Association When a crisis event occurs—in school, in the community or at the national level—it can cause strong and deeply felt reactions in adults and children, especially those children with special needs. Many of the available crisis response resources are appropriate for use with students with disabilities, provided that individual consideration is given to the child's developmental and emotional maturity. This article will provides assistance to parents and school personnel to assist children with special learning needs http://www.nasponline.org/NEAT/specpop_general.html

4) Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI) - a program of the National Organization on Disability -
Compelled by the attacks of September 11, 2001, N.O.D. launched the Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI) to ensure that emergency managers address disability concerns and that people with disabilities are included in all levels of emergency preparedness- planning, response, and recovery. http://www.nod.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=11

(This information has also been added to our materials section)