Special Needs Shelter
Most people know that American Red Cross volunteers set up shelters for victims of disasters. However, some of these victims may have medical conditions beyond what the American Red Cross can provide. Health Departments across the country are responsible for setting up shelters for people who have medical conditions requiring assistance by a medical provider. These shelters are called Special Needs Shelters or Special Medical Needs Shelters. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department and our Local American Red Cross chapter work together to plan for local shelters that will accommodate both groups.
Many people in our community have "special needs" but that does not mean they would be required to go to a Special Needs Shelter. Only people with medical conditions needing assistance or monitoring would go to the Special Needs Shelter. Local plans include having both types of shelters in the same location. This allows families to be near other family members that may need the additional assistance provided at a Special Needs Shelter.
The health department staff will not be able to manage and staff the shelter alone, so MRC members and the help they supply will be a wonderful asset the community. Tasks range from cooking meals, to setting up computers, to registering shelterees, to providing medical care, and many other variuos tasks in between. MRC members who attend "Intermediate" training receive detailed information about Special Needs shelters so they are better prepared to assist the community if a sheltering opportunity occurs.
Special Needs Shelter set-up for Twisted Bluegrass Exercise at NorthEast Christian Church on August 26 & 27, 2008
For Your Information
A note to Lexington Fayette County Health Department Staff regarding sheltering for Hurricane Gustav, September 3, 2008:
The end of August and beginning of September showcased so many reasons to be proud of our health department’s workers as efforts were made to open a special needs shelter to help Hurricane Gustav evacuees.
Many LFCHD employees have been working since 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, when we opened the Department Operations Center (DOC) in the Training Room on the third floor of 650 Newtown Pike. We remained on alert for Lexington to take evacuees from New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav continued on its course to hit Louisiana Monday, Sept. 1.
The evacuees were flown in to Louisville and assessed at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, and you have probably seen media coverage of this. In Lexington, we serve as support to Red Cross in their general emergency shelters with nurses and
clerical support staff to help with intake of the evacuees and determine if they have any health problems. Our environmentalists also inspect the shelters on a regular basis with regards to food safety, employee/evacuee safety, cleanliness, etc. Our epidemiology team helps assess any potential communicable disease/injury and other issues at the shelters. Had we received evacuees from Louisville and had any of them had chronic medical conditions, we would have opened a special needs shelter with our nurses, nurse practitioners and clerical support staff.
Lexington did not receive any evacuees, but Louisville took in almost, 1,500 folks. We sent an RN and a ARNP to help Louisville with its special needs shelter. Gustav moved faster than anticipated, and New Orleans changed the priority to medical evacuations from hospitals as the weekend ended. Our DOC closed at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, but we remain prepared to assist if called to action.
Our staff rose to the challenge this holiday weekend — they gave up their holiday plans and came in and did a tremendous amount of planning, put people on call for their shelter duty, worked on shelter set up, moved equipment and supplies to Centenary United Methodist Church (the first designated shelter) from the warehouse working with Fayette County Schools to secure a truck for the move, secured food for the staff working, inspected the shelter with Red Cross, participated in numerous meetings with Fayette County Emergency Management and numerous conference calls with Kentucky Department for Public Health and the list goes on.
This was a time for our health department to showcase what a great team we have working here, and it made me proud to be involved with such a great group of people. Thank you.
Melinda G. Rowe, MD
Commissioner of Health
Lexington Fayette Co. Health Dept.
