As populations in North American continue to age, emergency services are finding the need to reconfigure their approaches to best serve the elderly when disasters occur. To help ensure these individuals receive the support they need, two researchers at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, have developed a new algorithm intended to help first responders find seniors in home care, according to an article by the CBC.
Developed by emergency management coordinator for the Region of Waterloo Sandy Van Solm as part of her doctorate degree with professor John Hirdes, the algorithm takes data collected by the Local Health Integration Network and generates information on individuals who are at the greatest risks, and the types of support they require. With this information, emergency personnel can generate maps showing the locations of these people, and coordinate support.
Notes Van Solm, “Let’s say in an area where have three or four people in a wheelchair, we can already pre-plan how many buses we’d need to evacuate those people.”
As to the need for the tool, Van Solm says, “These are clients mostly in need of support in emergencies whether that’s during an evacuation or snowstorm isolating people from the outside.” In the case of Fort McMurray, for example, Van Solm points to problems with evacuation. “Fort McMurray, they’ve had issues evacuating home care clients with disability. You’ve seen pictures of seniors in the water, sitting in wheel chairs last year during the hurricane in Texas,” she told the CBC.
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