Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

drudek

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  Essential Capabilities »

  Ensuring Availability of Prescription Medications

  During non-emergency times, most of us just hop on over to our neighborhood pharmacy to obtain our needed prescription medications. Has any dialogue been had with the large pharmacy chains to see about getting their stock of medicines out to whoever's managing the distribution of such things at emergency shelters? (I have no idea.) I would think that would be the most readily available place to get such things in the ...more »

  During non-emergency times, most of us just hop on over to our neighborhood pharmacy to obtain our needed prescription medications.

  Has any dialogue been had with the large pharmacy chains to see about getting their stock of medicines out to whoever's managing the distribution of such things at emergency shelters? (I have no idea.)

  I would think that would be the most readily available place to get such things in the event folks have had to leave their homes in such a rush that they've got little to none of their essential, daily, medications on their person.

  I think that there's a large population who wouldn't necessarily need "more advanced emergency care" if only they could go to a regular emergency shelter and get access to some of the more basic sorts of everyday medications that so many of us rely on...quite literally for our lives. Things like insulin, allergy and asthma medication, some of the medications that manage psychiatric conditions or pain...medications where if a person has them, they're probably going to fare about as well as anyone else, but if they suddenly DON'T have them their medical condition quickly becomes life threatening (at worst) or increasingly more miserable and basically unbearable (at best).

  The odds aren't high that the local pharmacy is going to be open, so wouldn't it make sense to already have agreements and procedures in place to just allow the local pharmacies to just release the supplies in the most sensible directions and have a plan in place to facilitate the optimal movement of those supplies?

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  14 comments for Idea: Ensuring Availability of Prescription Medications

  Submitted by drudek 1 year ago

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  Strategic Foresight Initiative »

  Service Animals in Emergency Disaster Shelters - Training

  I had the pleasure of speaking to a number of VMAT team members (Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams) at the most recent Penn Vet Working Dog Conference. (I hold a Master's degree in Assistance Dog Studies and now specialize in Assistance Dog Law.) VMATs are often called during deployments to the Emergency Shelters because a person with a disability is seeking shelter and is requesting that they be allowed to have their ...more »

  I had the pleasure of speaking to a number of VMAT team members (Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams) at the most recent Penn Vet Working Dog Conference. (I hold a Master's degree in Assistance Dog Studies and now specialize in Assistance Dog Law.) VMATs are often called during deployments to the Emergency Shelters because a person with a disability is seeking shelter and is requesting that they be allowed to have their service animal remain with them and the "usual" shelter managers are unsure what to do.

  After giving them an overview of the 'basics', I was asked numerous questions and asked for what I thought would be reasonable guidelines for handling such situations during an emergency.

  These VMAT/NDMS members sought me out and a relatively chance encounter turned into (and has remained) a fantastic, ongoing dialogue. I cannot help but think, though, that if this very small segment of the "Emergency Responder" community had so many very important questions that the rest of the community needs to be brought up to speed.

  Ultimately, during a large disaster, I personally believe the allowance of an assistance animal has to come down to a potentially very difficult judgement call. I do, however, feel that the person(s) should be as educated as possible about service animals in order to best make that judgement call.

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  5 comments for Idea: Service Animals in Emergency Disaster Shelters - Training

  Submitted by drudek 1 year ago

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