Nursing Home Evacuations Should Not Be “All or Nothing,” Says GSA Member in Senate Testimony

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Nursing Home Evacuations Should Not Be “All or Nothing,” Says GSA Member in Senate Testimony

Speaking before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging today, University of South Florida professor Kathryn Hyer, PhD, MPP, FGSA, urged lawmakers to support actions that enable nursing homes and assisted living communities to better serve their residents in times of disaster — and noted that evacuation is not always the best option.

Hyer is a fellow of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and serves as director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging at the University of South Florida. She joined three other experts at a hearing titled “Disaster Preparedness and Response: The Special Needs of Older Americans.”

“While everyone suffers in disasters, our data indicate that exposure to natural disasters such as Hurricanes Harvey or Irma clearly results in excess death and hospitalizations among frail populations,” Hyer said. “Evacuations should not be all or nothing. We need a much more nuanced and better-researched understanding of who should evacuate before, and how people can be sustained appropriately.” . . .

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