Collaborative disaster preparedness for persons with disabilities: A case study

Background: Persons with disabilities (PWD) face a unique challenge when preparing for disasters. Whether it's additional time to prepare, gather assistive equipment, or address the difficulties with transportation, pre-planning plays a key role in their safety. A series of local preparedness workshops targeting PWDs and subsidized by the Florida Department of Health were developed. Unfortunately, these efforts did not provide consistent and effective results. Methods: The Florida Department of Health (DOH), via federal funding, developed a pilot project utilizing a capitation system whereby community based organizations (CBO) were compensated to assist PWDs one-on-one to complete a disaster planning template. Outcomes: Despite starting the project mid-year, the project was deemed a success with a total of 1633 plans completed by PWDs working with 12 CBOs. Over 67% of CBOs reached or exceeded their target goal and 91% are participating in the 2012-13 project year. As a result, DOH increased the number of PWDs assisted annually by 56% while experiencing a 41% reduction in program implementation costs and a 62% reduction in per person costs over 2010-2011. Conclusions: Working collaboratively with CBOs which provide services to an existing client/customer base provides an effective means of working one-on-one with PWDs, offers local source credibility for a program and its provider, and increased the rate of participation by individuals over previous efforts.