Creating Dementia-Inclusive Communities Using a Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program Framework

The Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) sponsored by HRSA provides an organizing framework around which dementia inclusive community initiatives can be successfully implemented and sustained. The overarching goal of all GWEPs is to improve outcomes for older adults by promoting evidence-based education that spans the continuum of care. This includes integration of academic, clinical, and community-based providers. By their very nature, all GWEPs partner across agencies throughout the state to deliver interprofessional education that will impact people living with dementia and their caregivers at the community, primary care, and acute care levels. Dementia inclusive community initiatives must have this kind of high-level interagency coordination. Our GWEP has successfully implemented Dementia Friends sessions across multiple sectors (Veterans, EMS, clergy, libraries, developmentally disabled, living alone) both in-person and virtually due to COVID-19. This symposium will share the methods to organize at the community level to deliver a unified message community-wide.

After the Haiti 2021 Earthquake: Triage and treatment data for a cohort of patients transported for higher level of care

Intro: On August 14, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred in the South of Haiti, killing over 2,200 people and leaving at least 12,000 injured. On August 17th, a joint task force coordinated the triage, treatment, and transport for patients arriving at the Port-au-Prince airport from the South. Methods: From August 17th-27th, approximately 243 patients were encountered at the Port-au-Prince airport. For the first three days of operations, written notes, reports, and various chat logs from WhatsApp were used to compile this data. Results: 243 patents were encountered at the airport Triage and Treatment from August 17 to August 27. Orthopedic injuries were the most common presenting injury with 20% of patients having a pelvis fracture (the most prevalent injury). Of the 174 with known transfer destinations, 118 (68%) were transported to one of three tertiary care hospitals, with 99 going via ground ambulance to the two in Port au Prince, and 19 going via HAA helicopter to Mirebalais, 32 miles away. Once treatment operations were initiated, 106 patients received some form of treatment at the airport while awaiting transport. Discussion: Interagency coordination was the key to rapid scale up. To address the most prevalent patient issues, a treatment bundle was conceptualized a few days into operations that consisted of IV fluids, analgesia, IV antibiotics, wound debridement and cleaning, and tetanus prophylaxis.

Organizational Disaster Communication Ecology: Examining Interagency Coordination on Social Media During the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Interagency coordination is crucial for effective multiagency disaster management. Viewing government and emergency management organizations as vital components of citizens’ disaster communication ecology, this study examines how a group of Texas-based public health departments and emergency management offices engaged in interagency coordination during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing coronavirus-related agency tweets between early February and the end of August 2020, the study assesses two types of interagency coordination: (1) content-level coordination in the form of semantic similarity among the selected public agencies serving different jurisdictions and (2) relational-level coordination in terms of referencing common stakeholders through retweeting coronavirus-related information. Using a granular, four-stage construct of a crisis, results identify stage-based variation with regard to peer-to-peer and federal-to-local coordination. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications for communication ecology and disaster management.

The benefits and challenges of implementing impact-based severe weather warning systems: Perspectives of weather, flood, and emergency management personnel

Warnings about impending hazards help to minimise the impacts and reduce the risk through encouraging an appropriate and timely behavioural response. Many hydrometeorological agencies are moving towards impact-based forecast and warning (IBFW) systems, as encouraged by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Yet little research has been conducted on such systems from the perspectives of agencies who are or would be involved in their implementation. We investigated the challenges and benefits of IBFW systems as perceived by participants from agencies internationally and within New Zealand. Interviews and workshops were held with meteorologists and weather forecasters, flood forecasters and hydrologists, and emergency managers.We found that the benefits of implementing IBFW systems included a perceived increase in the understanding of the potential impacts by the public, added awareness of antecedent conditions by forecasters, a possible reduction in ‘false alarms’, and increased interagency communication. Challenges identified by the participants included whether the system should be designed for individuals or society, a lack of impact data, verification of warnings based on impacts, a conflict with roles and responsibilities, the potential for conflicting messages, and the increased burden on agencies providing information to forecasters with a perception of little benefit in return.We argue that IBFWs could be designed for individual members of the public, with an increased focus on understanding vulnerability and capacities; and that more impact data needs to be collected and stored to inform future warnings. Increased interagency coordination would assist with rapid decision-making and the success of IBFWs.

Setting Standards: The National Quality Forum

When AHRQ assumed the responsibility from the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC) report, Doing What Counts for Patient Safety, to develop practice changes to reduce harm from medical errors, it faced two problems: there were few proven safe practices, and there was a dearth of standards by which to evaluate them. A standard setter was needed.

Status of Professional Morbidity in the Pridneprovsk Economic Region during 2015-2019

The purpose of the study was to analyze the occupational morbidity in the Dnieper Economic Region, its structure in dynamics for 2015-2019, identify the main causes that lead to the formation of occupational pathology, and suggest ways to solve the problem. Material and methods. Based on the processing of the medical documentation of the clinic, the Ukrainian Research Institute of Industrial Medicine, we conducted a comparative analysis of occupational morbidity indicators in the dynamics of 2015-2019 was carried out taking into account the main forms of pathology and regional distribution. Results and discussion. The level of occupational morbidity among workers of the Dnieper Economic Region in 2015-2019 varies from 354 to 10307 cases. The leadership in the formation of professional pathology remains with the Dnipropetrovsk region, where large enterprises of the leading branches of heavy industry are located, in dangerous and harmful conditions of which a significant number of people work. In the structure of occupational morbidity, the first place is occupied by chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases of occupational etiology (31.7%), the second is cochlear neuritis (27.3%), the third is radiculopathy (23.7%), and the fourth is vibration disease (7.6%). Indicators of occupational morbidity indicate only the detection of occupational pathology. The statistics do not reflect the true situation, which is due to the imperfection of labor protection legislation, the lack of legal and economic sanctions for concealing occupational diseases, and the shortcomings of medical diagnostic and preventive work among workers. The solution to this problem, in our opinion, may consist in enhancing coordination of the entire complex of scientific and practical activities for the development and substantiation of strategies, tactics and implementation of national policies from the most important areas of occupational medicine. Conclusion. It is necessary to formulate a systematic approach to the prevention of occupational morbidity of the population, taking into account the characteristics of the current situation in the region and in the country as a whole. Comprehensive solution of problems in the health of workers, taking into account the interagency coordination of the system of measures, in the future will ensure the preservation of labor potential, prolong working life, and reduce general and occupational diseases

Joined-Up Government in the Prevention of Terrorist-Financing Offenses by Nonprofit Organizations: An Evidence-Based Approach

Indonesian interagency coordination to prevent terrorist-financing offenses by nonprofit organizations has several drawbacks. This article applies textual analysis and an evidence-based approach to draw effective coordination mechanisms from several countries’ experiences and to design a model of interagency coordination. The model illustrates mechanisms that can be the drivers of changes and minimize ineffective interagency coordination, which may lead to an increase in nonprofit vulnerabilities to terrorist-financing offenses. Evidence drawn from several countries that are contextually relevant to Indonesia, namely, Australia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, illustrates that effective interagency coordination potentially reduces the risks of terrorist financing and has synchronized policies, objectives, functions, and responsibilities among authorities. Therefore, authorities can prioritize interventions and resources to address the most vulnerable factors. This article suggests improvements in four aspects: collaborative endeavors toward single integrated databases; comprehensive risk assessment of nonprofits; priority settings on socialization, education, monitoring, and supervision; and network model to improve voluntary information sharing.