Mary Spalding, MA, MLIS Western Maryland Area Health Education Center This program is sponsored in whole or in part by the National Library of Medicine

The goal of Safe Seniors: Appalachian Disaster and Emergency Health Information Outreach is to improve disaster medicine and public health information access for health professionals, first responders and others (paid or volunteer) who play a role in health- related disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in three rural Appalachian counties in Maryland, with a focus on the elderly population. Photo by Nancy Frost

1) To develop and conduct a needs assessment to be disseminated to at least 100 local libraries and first responders, such as police and fire departments, Red Cross, and others involved in disaster preparedness, to determine their interest in and availability for training on accessing local and national disaster public health resources, particularly those relating to the elderly and those from the National Library of Medicine. 2) To provide culturally competent training on accessing local and national disaster medicine and public health resources, particularly those relating to the local rural geriatric population and those offered by the National Library of Medicine, for at least 250 area health professionals, first responders, librarians, and volunteers with a role in disaster response, management, and information. 3) To develop, produce, and promote resources to increase access to local and national disaster medicine and public health resources, including an ADA Section 508-compliant training video on accessing disaster resources particularly those relating to the local rural geriatric population and those developed by National Library of Medicine and a downloadable, culturally competent handout on key local and national disaster resources for seniors.

Allegany College of Maryland Health Continuing Education Dept. Allegany County Health Department Emergency Preparedness Caucus, WMAHEC Frostburg State University Pre-Medical Society Garrett County Health Department Meritus Health Medical Library and Education Department Social Work Caucus - Allegany/Garrett Counties, WMAHEC Social Work Caucus - Washington County, WMAHEC Washington County Health Department Western Maryland Health System Parish Nurse and Health Minister Program

Medical Librarian at WMAHEC since 1999, either full- time or on contract while teaching college English; Oversee WMAHEC’s Learning Resource Center, Primary Access Library for the region; also serve under contract for medical librarian services for several area hospitals; Grantwriter, Webmaster, and PR writer for WMAHEC Former President of Maryland Association of Health Science Librarians Presenter for two sessions at Medical Library Association national meeting in 2002 Loving this project!

West Virginia Virginia Map from U.S. Senator for Maryland Barbara Milkulski,

Photo by Val McClaskey – Photo at PennLive - /05/government_to_condemn_land_for.html /05/government_to_condemn_land_for.html On 9/11, Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania--just a few miles north of our region. A friend who lives on the state line in Finzel, Maryland, felt the impact 28 miles from the actual crash. Image from Wikimedia Commons,

Photo from Newscom FocalPoint, 2012 According to Safe Seniors partners, many seniors isolated by the storm had no electricity for oxygen tanks or other medical devices, and local stores ran out of generators. Photo from Barry Glotfelty, a personal friend, after a 2010 blizzard Hurricane Sandy created blizzard conditions in Garrett County, which has some of the highest snowfall on the East Coast, leaving farm animals out in the cold.

Governor Martin O'Malley toured areas in Garrett County Thursday, including a visit with displaced residents at a shelter in Oakland, and a meeting with local elected and emergency management officials. O'Malley said his chief concern is for senior citizens and people who are disabled. Much of Garrett County is under two feet or more of snow. The most was measured at 28 inches in Red House. I know everybody's up here waiting on generators and power," says Andy Witt. "It's bad.” (WJLA Channel 7 News, rett-county-gets-pounded-by-snow- storm html rett-county-gets-pounded-by-snow- storm html )

Photo from Maryland Department of the Environment Severe flooding in the area is common, as is dense fog—but who would’ve thought we’d have tornadoes in the mountains? We have, quite a few times. Oh, did I mention explosions at the ballistics factory just over the West Virginia line? Weatherbug, June 2012; tornado was in 1998) 80-car pileup, 2 killed, May 2003; image from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, gazette.com/localnews/ crashreg2p2.asphttp://old.post- gazette.com/localnews/ crashreg2p2.asp

 Railroad and Interstate accidents – injuries, loss of life, fires, chemical spills?  Earthquakes (In 2011, a 5.8 quake with epicenter in Virginia was felt in Western Maryland)  Terrorism  Consequences of fracking—not yet occurring in Maryland but just above in Pennsylvania ABC News, May 28, 2013— This derailment was in White Marsh, Maryland, NOT in Western Maryland—but with many railroads in Western Maryland this could easily happen here

 Lead agency for Safe Seniors – 501(c)3 non-profit  Established in 1976 to provide rural clinical education to medical students at University of Maryland School of Medicine (and other universities), with health professions caucuses plan and offer continuing education, and provide medical library services  Primary Access Library for Western Maryland  Core funding from University and State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene supplemented by grants and contracts such as this one with National Library of Medicine  Mission: To promote quality in and access to health care through educational partnerships

 To develop and conduct a needs assessment to be disseminated to at least 100 local libraries and first responders, such as police and fire departments, Red Cross, and others involved in disaster preparedness, to determine their interest in and availability for training on accessing local and national disaster public health resources, particularly those relating to the elderly and those from the National Library of Medicine.

 We sent the needs assessment to all partners in the proposal, few of whom responded, so we followed up with s.  The survey was not sent to first response organizations because we learned early in the process that first responders’ training requirements are set by the State of Maryland and do not include “elective” courses. All licensing and license maintenance courses are medical skills based.  Thus, we had to think of another strategy to reach this audience.  More on librarians in a moment.

 Contacted the three local health departments where state- mandated quarterly disaster preparation meetings are held;  Presented at the Garrett County Health Department’s quarterly disaster management council with leaders of first response organizations in March and offered to come to their agencies to present to their employees;  Scheduled a training to be held at the Washington County Health Department in September – all first response and other disaster preparedness leaders will be invited by the Health Department.

 We scheduled a non-credit course at Allegany College of Maryland to be held in September that appears in its fall calendar.  We will promote the course via local newspapers and radio stations, emphasizing its usefulness for first responders and others involved in disaster preparation and management.  Once the video (Objective 3) is complete, we will promote it heavily to first responders!

 Allegany County Health Department indicated it was not interested in training or a presentation, but we hope to convince them otherwise! If not, the project coordinator will send them a list of links they may want to add to their Web site, an idea they welcomed.  We also hope to add a few more organizations to our (already quite busy) training schedule and are reaching out to those most relevant to the project.

 We used a more informal means than surveying to ascertain interest; we simply used , as we have longstanding relationships with all librarians in the region;  WMAHEC was the originator of the Consortium of Health Information Libraries Outreach (CHIL-Out) that gathered librarians in all three counties for monthly meeting for years;  For many years, WMAHEC has provided training on accessing electronic health information to area librarians and health professionals with funding from the National Library of Medicine, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Region, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services and are well known in the library community for doing so.

 To provide culturally competent training on accessing local and national disaster medicine and public health resources, particularly those relating to the local rural geriatric population and those offered by the National Library of Medicine, for at least 250 area health professionals, first responders, librarians, and volunteers with a role in disaster response, management, and information.

 Focused our time on familiarizing ourselves with DIMRC, state, and local resources;  Developed a core PowerPoint presentation to be tailored for each group to be trained; these will be made ADA Section 508 compliant and posted to our Web site;  Continued working on Objective One to locate groups interested in presentations or trainings and publicized the opportunity in local newspapers and in our WMAHEC Happenings newsletter mailed out to our listservs (12 discipline-specific caucuses, including an E- Prep Caucus, plus other health care stakeholders).

Date/TimeLocationAudienceHow many? CEUs provided 2/12/2013 9:30-10:15 a Garrett County Health Department, Oakland First response and disaster preparedness leaders 19No 3/7/ pm Western Maryland Health System, Cumberland Parish Nurses*3*Nursing 3/19/ pm Western Maryland Health System, Cumberland WMAHEC Board of Directors 20No 4/10/2013 6:15-7:15 p Frostburg State University, Frostburg Pre-Med Society undergraduates 23No 4/23/ – 1:30 pm Meritus Health Medical Center, Hagerstown All Meritus and area health professionals 13Nursing, Social Work * The Parish Nurse coordinator sent the training PowerPoints out to 140+ nurses and ministers on her mailing list

Date/TimeLocationAudienceHow many? CEUs provided 6/25/ Noon Western Maryland Health System, Cumberland Cumberland Ministerial Board 9No 6/25/ :30 pm Frostburg State University Lewis J. Ort Library Academic and public librarians 18No 7/8/ :30 pm Washington County Department of Social Services WMAHEC Social Work Caucus 12Social Work 7/11/ pm Frostburg State University, Frostburg Exploring Careers in Health Occupations 30No 8/9/ Noon St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Cumberland Women’s Group21No

To date, 168 health professionals, librarians, students, parish nurses, ministers/rabbis, first response leaders, and church groups have been trained... Pre/Post tests (when used) have demonstrated increased knowledge, and evaluations have been positive And we have more trainings and presentations on the books.

Date/TimeLocationAudienceHow many? CEUs provided 8/14/ :30-2 pm Western Maryland Health System, Cumberland WMAHEC Social Work Caucus Approx. 24 Social Work 9/3/ :30-Noon Allegany County Seniors Center Seniors Center staff and clients Approx. 15 No 9/6/2013Allegany College of Maryland Faculty and staffApprox. 30 No 9/10/2013Westernport Seniors Center Seniors Center staff and clients Approx. 15 No 9/10/ :30 pm Allegany College of Maryland General public – hopefully first responders Approx. 15 No 11/11/ :50 pm (after contract ends) Western Maryland Regional Library Tri- County Annual Summit, Hagerstown Public and other librarians in 3 counties Approx. 40 No

 To develop, produce, and promote resources to increase access to local and national disaster medicine and public health resources, including an ADA Section 508- compliant training video on accessing disaster resources particularly those relating to the local rural geriatric population and those developed by National Library of Medicine and a downloadable, culturally competent handout on key local and national disaster resources for seniors.

 Just starting this process but it’s going well  Tutorial will specifically address needs in Western Maryland but may also be useful for other communities, especially rural ones  Tutorial will highlight disaster resources for seniors (due to our high population in this area) and other vulnerable populations  Software: Adobe Captivate  Web host: WMAHEC Web site and/or YouTube  PowerPoint presentations for groups trained with clickable links to resources will also be posted  Working on making all Web materials ADA Section 508 compliant

 Downloadable, seniors-friendly directory (one page) of locally accessible disaster information and phone numbers is in progress and will be posted to our Web site when done.

Mary Spalding, MA, MLIS Western Maryland Area Health Education Center (AHEC) 39 Baltimore Street, Suite 201 Cumberland, MD , ext Web site: Thank you!