This Isn’t Your Grandma’s Safety Plan

Many people overlook the needs of their aging loved ones when creating emergency plans. In reality, Grandma may not have a plan at all. That's why it's essential to include her specific needs in your safety strategy.

In this episode, Jimmy and Megan discuss how disaster preparedness evolves as we (and our loved ones) age. They cover everything from slip-proof showers and sturdy handrails to go-bags tailored for seniors, providing insights into what it truly takes to keep elderly family members safe.

They share personal stories about the frantic search for grandparents after an earthquake, navigating insufficient facility plans, and finding creative solutions to real challenges, such as maintaining oxygen concentrators and keeping refrigerated medications cold during power outages.

Whether you're supporting a parent, grandparent, or planning for your own safety, this conversation is filled with practical tips and important questions to discuss at home. When emergencies arise, it's vital to include all your loved ones in the plan, especially your grandparents.

Join us and take the opportunity to become more confident in caring for your loved ones before the next disaster happens.

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Chapters

• 0:46 Introducing Elderly Safety Considerations
• 2:57 Home Safety and Disaster Preparedness
• 5:17 Care Facility Emergency Planning Concerns
• 8:30 Medical Equipment and Medication Solutions
• 12:42 Important Documents and Facility Questions

Transcript

Jimmy: 0:23

What's happening? It's another life and safety podcast with Jimmy and your girl, megs. Hello, today we're going to be talking about a population that is not necessarily thought of. What Population? Not the right word.

Megan: 0:41

No, it is, it is just amusing.

Jimmy: 0:45

Okay, you think I used PC words like population. Should I said today we're talking about old folks?

Megan: 0:52

I. That is kind of what I expected.

Jimmy: 0:54

Yes, I was just thrown fair enough, fair enough, and what we're going to talk about is, you know, some disaster preparedness, specifically for elderly people.

Megan: 1:07

you know, a lot of times we talk about and I would argue, not even disaster preparedness, just like also basic safety preparedness too.

Jimmy: 1:15

Okay, okay. What do you mean by that?

Megan: 1:19

Like, well, yes, we'll talk about things to be prepared for in a disaster, specifically about you know the old folks, so to speak, as you said about um. You know the old folks, so to speak, as you said, but also, like you know that people, um, who are older have a uh, they're more susceptible to things like heat exhaustion or, um, you know, cold and they're more susceptible to other illnesses. So you just have to, be like aware of that and keep that in mind, and you know you want to make sure that you have, like places you're going, like you know handrails in the shower or a shower seat, things like that, to keep them safe. Or you know non-slip pads and things like that, like be aware of tripping hazards.

Jimmy: 2:03

Sure, that's all great safety stuff, yeah, and I think that kind of leans us into the disaster stuff, yeah. So if you're already kind of forward thinking, like with handrails and shower seats and the ducky, sticky things on the ground, so on the showers you don't slip, you know, let's kind of build off of that, you know, and kind of think about all right, in a disaster we have an earthquake, you know. So what are some other special needs? So of course, food and water and shelter and all those things. But if it is a shelter, is that tent they're going to be able to get in and out of? Are they actually going to get in?

Megan: 2:46

and out of it. So, and if they're going to be able to, get in and out of.

Jimmy: 2:47

Are they actually going to get in and out of it so?

Megan: 2:50

and if they're going to be sleeping on the floor, they're going to be able to get on and off the floor safely.

Jimmy: 2:54

Absolutely. You know, a cot might be the better way to store for that person, or even, you know, like a double stacked air mattress, depending on how large the person is or how small the person is. And you know, I meant, I guess, height, that's what I meant by that. Um, and then is there going to be somebody designated to go to that person's house and check on them and take care of them in that situation? And if so, and does your family have that emergency response plan to even get to that facility?

Megan: 3:30

Yeah.

Jimmy: 3:33

Right.

Megan: 3:33

Or if they're living at home, who's going to check on them? I know there was an earthquake recently up where my grandparents were and we couldn't get a hold of them and so my mom and all of her brothers were like, okay, who's the closest, who can go check? And we got a hold of them and they they were just taking a nap and it was ridiculous. But there was that like mobilization area. We were like oh my God, wait, who's going to go up there? Who has the time?

Jimmy: 3:56

Yeah.

Megan: 3:57

And like who has the ability, who's closest?

Jimmy: 4:00

Sure.

Megan: 4:00

Which made us realize we have to figure that out, because that wasn't an emergency, but it could have been.

Jimmy: 4:06

Yeah, yeah. So those kind of plans Right Now, if the person is living at home or person you know, they're like I got to take care of my gas, I got to shut the gas off? Are they strong enough to shut off the gas? Maybe they need to talk to their neighbors. If they are in a neighborhood and if they're in a facility, then maybe saying, hey, what's our plan and what's the facility's plan? Are the workers in the facility going to stay?

Megan: 4:41

Yeah, oh my gosh, I used to live next to it wasn't necessarily, it was a care facility facility not necessarily for elderly, but more just for disabled in general.

Megan: 4:54

Sure, um, but there was a time where, like, the fire alarm was going off like once a week. It was ridiculous, um, and usually it got. They like figured it out pretty quickly. But one time it was going off for like 10 minutes and, um, I was like, uh, I should check on this, what's going on. And so I go and knock on the door. It turns out they had no idea the fire alarm was even going off. It was like an outdoor alarm or something. They couldn't hear it because there was only one worker at that time and they were in the back of the house and the alarm was in the front of the house. They didn't even hear it until they came and found it, until I was knocking on the door, and then the worker came and they're like oh.

Megan: 5:36

I didn't know that was going off. Uh, and they like didn't know what to do and I was like, okay, well, in case it's a real fire, we should probably evacuate. They're like, oh, I don't know how to do that. And I was like, okay, well, you're going to help go rouse everybody and we're going to get them outside. That's what we're going to do. And I was like, why am I, the neighbor, taking care of this? This is crazy. Why isn't there a plan?

Megan: 6:03

Which made me like I don't know, I just kind of always assumed the care facilities were all good quality and going to have good plans, and it made me realize that that's not necessarily the case. So ask those questions If you or a loved one is planning on going into a care facility like my aunt is probably going to go into a care facility pretty soon, and so we're like looking at a bunch of different facilities and it like made me realize like, oh, there are things that like I want to know that this facility knows how to take care of that probably isn't on their website or brochure brochure yeah, there's definitely levels, right, you definitely get what you pay for.

Jimmy: 6:41

I've noticed, yeah, um. Now, with that being said, those are just a couple of things. And then you know to your point about warm clothes, right. So most I would say most people, because we kind of talk about adults you know 18 to, you know 50, 60-ish, you know where maybe a sweatshirt and a jacket is good enough, but what about sweatshirt, jacket, blanket? That's going to take up more room in your disaster stuff. So you got to think of your disaster preparedness kit might become bigger the older you get versus where it was smaller. You know different things. And then making sure that you can carry it and it can be moved.

Megan: 7:30

Yeah.

Jimmy: 7:37

And I think it's, you know, kind of an important thing to think about and to do. For case in point, we just helped a family member with their extended family kind of come up with a solution as far as an oxygen compressor I almost said air compressor, but that's not the right thing. That's for your tires, no oxygen compressor for your lungs. They live in an area where there's lots of hurricanes and things like that and the question was what do we do if the power goes out and our loved one can't get oxygen? And they're small bottles. The travel bottles are only go so far. Yeah, you know that. You know I don't remember how long they had theirs rated for it, said the bottle it was, but it wasn't very long. So what's plan B or C at that point? And they called the manufacturer and they said we don't give a solution for that, so just call 911.

Megan: 8:40

Which is a crazy statement, I must say.

Jimmy: 8:43

Right.

Megan: 8:44

Like isn't that your job?

Jimmy: 8:45

Yeah, well, I was thinking, well, how come there's not like a lithium battery backup, like an UPS backup that you can stick in to that thing? Yeah, or have that run it, or you know. So what we kind of sourced was just a you know power, a you know a larger power bank that you can plug into you know, like you do camping with. And we got and we saw one like on Amazon like a goal zero battery pack with solar panels, and I'm sure there's different, yeah exactly, exactly, and I suggested to put it on a luggage carrier, like a little luggage cart.

Megan: 9:33

Yeah.

Jimmy: 9:35

So the family member can move it with their walker, so they can slide their walker, pull their thing. Slide their walker, pull their thing If they needed to.

Megan: 9:45

Yeah.

Jimmy: 9:47

But at least it's mobile, so go ahead.

Megan: 9:52

Another good point is emergency backups for an O2 compressor, as needed. But also, what about meds, especially refrigerated meds?

Jimmy: 10:02

in an emergency. Yeah, that's where I was going to go next. Oh, perfect, no, yeah, so they make. You know, there's, the coolers out there nowadays are so good and so nice. There, nowadays are so good and so nice, you know. So if you, even if the elderly person, has a couple of the ice blocks that you can, you know, stick in your freezer and you pull out and then you slide those inside your cooler, you know you can buy those everywhere and then you can stick your medicine inside that cooler. That cooler's gonna. You know, unfortunately, some of the newer, bigger brand, really bulky coolers are going to be expensive, but I know you can buy some cheap alternatives at, let's say, some of the big box stores like Walmart, things like that, you know. So that are going to last, you know, at least for a day, you know, hopefully two days. You're going to get help, but you're definitely going to be able to do those things.

Jimmy: 11:03

So consider size, consideration of your disaster pack just having a plan and talking about it it's huge and then, obviously, executing it or being able to execute it. And then your plan or, excuse me, your, your, what are you going to put things in? Is it, is it accessible and can you move it. And then what kind of documents, as an elderly person, know you're going to need. You know, like anybody else marriage certificates, insurance stuff, um, licenses, this, anything all of your identification stuff. Maybe some prescription refills, maybe some eyeglass prescriptions Even if you wear eyeglasses, you should have your prescription sheet printed out, saved someplace.

Jimmy: 11:52

Some contact information as we get older, the harder it is to remember everything. That hard drive gets filled up. So maybe some things, more Numbers written down and especially because elderly people they like that handwritten stuff more instead of trying to swipe through a phone, you know. So that's something to think about. So that's kind of some of the big stuff that we were thinking about. Now some questions to ask at the facilities. The first question I would ask is what are your disaster plans? What are your emergency action plans? Can I read those plans? And then I would ask how often they practiced it.

Megan: 12:40

Yeah.

Jimmy: 12:42

You know, um, I guess I should share this story. Maybe when we were looking for child care for our son me being me just overpanicked and being super stressed out about it I used to take a baby mannequin with us to the first couple of places and I was like my son's choking, what are you going to do? And I throw the mannequin at him and they would go, ah, and if they panicked and they didn't know what to do, we left.

Megan: 13:13

That's so funny. I didn't know you did that, that's such a you thing, right.

Jimmy: 13:19

So I think I did like the first two or three and I realized, well, jenny realized like dude, you're scaring everybody, you can't do that Like that's just. And I'm like, well, if I scare him, what's going to happen when our son really chokes?

Megan: 13:34

Yeah.

Jimmy: 13:36

And I was like, oh, kind of a good point. But like let's maybe end with that and let's start with it. And I was like, well, if you can't do the basics, why are you going to tell me everything else? Good conversation, but the same thing when you're looking for a facility for your loved one, your family member. What do you guys do? What's the procedure here? All right, folks, that's another Life and Safety podcast. We appreciate you. Take it easy, peace.

Megan: 14:07

Peace.