October 27th, 2011
Coastal Reconstruction Group team member pose with apartment industry celebrity and very special client, Lori Trainer, with Concord Management at the FAA Trade Show today!
Pictured (Left to Right) Lucas McCurdy, Coastal Reconstruction Group | Lori Trainer, Concord Management | Creston Leifried, Coastal Reconstruction Group
Click HERE to read Lori’s inspiring story featured in this month’s UNITS magazine on our News page.
October 26th, 2011
In a summer with unprecedented weather events, from tornados, floods, fires and hurricanes, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing found that physiological changes associated with aging and the presence of chronic illness make older adults more susceptible to illness or injury, even death, during a disaster.
Investigators followed 17 long-term care residents, with a mean age of 86, who were evacuated for five days due to a severe summer storm and were relocated to different facilities with different care providers and physical surroundings. The displaced participants experienced delirium, cognitive changes, hospitalizations, and death, according to research published in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.
“Older adults often have visual and hearing deficits, making it more difficult to interpret their environments and precipitating increased stress,” said lead author Pamela Cacchione, PhD, APRN, GNP, BC. “This stress can also exacerbate chronic illnesses, further precipitating delirium.”
The 17 participants were part of a broader intervention study testing the effectiveness of a nursing intervention to improve vision and hearing impairment and decrease incident delirium and other outcomes.
As part of the parent study residents were measured with four different tests. The MMSE is a 30-item mental status test that includes questions on orientation, language, attention and recall. The GDS is a 30-item interview based depression rating scale requiring yes or no responses, the NEECHAM is a 9-item nurse rated scale that includes the participant’s vital signs and pulse, which is designed to assess for acute confusion/delirium and the mCAM, another delirium assessment tool which includes tasks to assess attention.
The participants were all screened with the NEECHAM and the mCAM on the day of the severe storm and three times a week for two weeks upon their return to their home facility. The scores were compared with their Week 1 scores.
“This study provided documentation of what clinicians have known for some time, but such anecdotal accounts are seldom described with the clinical instrumentation described here,” said Dr. Cacchione. “Unexpected relocation often leads to poor outcomes for nursing home residents.”
The study, published in September 2011 issue, found that more than half the residents were negatively affected by evacuation and showed signs of delirium within the two weeks immediately following – two participants were hospitalized and one died.
“Nurses in all care settings, not just LTC sites, should be aware of the potential difficulties older adults may experience as a result of a natural disaster, especially when evacuations and relocations occur,” said Dr. Cacchione. “Basic physical care, ongoing assessment of chronic conditions, medication management, the return to familiar surroundings, and the return of valued objects should be facilitated as soon as possible.”
(Original Source: HERE)
October 12th, 2011
Minneapolis is the best city in the United States for senior living, with Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Denver rounding out the top five, according to a new survey conducted for the Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center For a Secure RetirementSM.
Criteria in the areas of senior issues and gerontology identified the qualities for optimal senior living. Major categories were: healthcare, economy, health and longevity, social, environment, spiritual life, housing, transportation and crime. Each category was statistically weighted to reflect the needs of the senior population.
“Most surprising is that the survey results contain many cities we don’t often associate with senior living,” said Scott Perry, president of Bankers Life and Casualty Company, the national life and health insurer. “We weren’t interested in another study on where to enjoy your retirement, but instead wanted to find cities that did the best job in providing the services and support that seniors need. The top ranked cities aren’t what come to mind when you think about where to spend your golden years, but they scored high in the criteria most important to the 65 and up bracket.”
The Categories
The Healthcare category includes physicians per capita, gerontologist to senior ratio, hospitals per capita, hospitals with special care, nursing homes per capita, nursing home beds per capita, continuing care retirement communities per capita and average nursing home rating.
Economy includes consumer price index, sales tax rate, the unemployment rate and the stability index.
Health and Longevity includes life expectancy, age 85 expectancy, depression rate, heart mortality and cancer mortality.
Social includes percentage of seniors, social and emotional support, satisfaction with life rating, art and museums, education level, recreation, four-year colleges and libraries.
Environment includes number of sunny days, clean air levels, clean water measurement, natural disaster risk index, ocean coastline miles, river and lake square mileage, and local/state park number and size.
Spiritual Life includes percent of population belonging to organized religions and the number of religious congregations.
Housing includes cost of living index, housing price, property taxes and apartment rentals.
Transportation includes public transportation, special access and mass transit percentage.
Crime includes violent crime rate and property crime rate.
Methodology
The Bankers Life and Casualty Company Center for a Secure Retirement Best Cities for Seniors 2011 was conducted in July of 2011 by the independent survey administrator Sperling’s Best Places and identified the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. The complete report may be viewed at www.CenterForASecureRetirement.com.
Best Cities for Seniors 2011
(includes surrounding metropolitan areas*)
Minneapolis, MN
Boston, MA
Pittsburgh, PA
Cleveland, OH
Denver, CO
Milwaukee, WI
San Francisco, CA
Portland, OR
Kansas City, MO
Newark, NJ
Nassau-Suffolk County, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Edison, NJ
St. Louis, MO
Baltimore, MD
Oklahoma City, OK
Salt Lake City, UT
Providence, RI
Seattle, WA
Indianapolis, IN
Cincinnati, OH
Columbus, OH
Washington, DC
Austin, TX
Chicago, IL
New York, NY
Oakland, CA
Nashville, TN
Dallas, TX
New Orleans, LA
San Jose, CA
San Diego, CA
Fort Worth, TX
San Antonio, TX
Miami, FL
Raleigh, NC
Los Angeles, CA
Charlotte, NC
Atlanta, GA
Phoenix, AZ
Virginia Beach, VA
Santa Ana, CA
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Tampa, FL
Houston, TX
Orlando, FL
Sacramento, CA
Detroit, MI
Las Vegas, NV
Riverside, CA
*Metropolitan areas are defined by the United States Census Bureau, and include a central city and the surrounding county or counties.
FULL REPORT: http://www.centerforasecureretirement.com/media/124687/18423_bestcities.pdf
(Original Source: http://www.bankers.com/AboutUs-PR-BestU.S.CitiesForSeniors.aspx)
October 3rd, 2011
By Brittany Anas
The Daily Camera
Twitter has become popular during disasters because it offers a concise and efficient communication medium.
BOULDER, Colo. — Inspired by the swift swapping of emergency information through Twitter during last year’s Fourmile Fire, a University of Colorado graduate student developed an Android application to help people use a common language while tweeting during disasters.
Daniel Schaefer, a University of Colorado doctoral student in communication, created a software application — or “app” — for mobile devices that turns everyday language into a Twitter syntax used during disasters through a special smart phone keypad.
Just as public safety communication codes were developed for citizens’ band radios — or CBs — that grew in popularity in the 1970s, a common language is emerging for disaster communication on Twitter.
Twitter has become popular during disasters because it offers a concise and efficient communication medium, Schaefer said. But, he said, a need to standardize the syntaxes used on Twitter has surfaced particularly for the emergency personnel, affected individuals, concerned loved ones, information officers and journalists who use it to provide and monitor information and collaborate on rescue efforts.
Already, Android phones have downloadable smart keyboards that allow users to type in emoticons or foreign languages.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there were a keyboard for people using Twitter during a disaster to use standard codes?’” Schaefer said.
Schaefer’s application uses syntax developed in 2009 by doctoral student Kate Starbird of CU’s Project EPIC (Empowering the Public with Information in Crisis) research group. Nearly 3,000 tweets using the “Tweak the Tweet” syntax were posted in the weeks following Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.
During the Fourmile Fire, Colorado’s most destructive wildfire, Schaefer noticed that people were using wrong hashtags to mark their tweets for easy searching.
Schaefer’s app helps provide a solution to better streamline emergency tweets.
The free app is called the Bucket Brigade Keyboard. It transforms the standard smart phone keyboard display into a keypad of a dozen message choices such as “help,” “location” and “request.”
When those messages are selected, corresponding tweets that could include a user’s status, needs or offers to help are queued for posting online.
The app, for example, turns “I’m Ok” into “#imok.”
Schaefer entered the Bucket Brigade Keyboard in the Federal Communications Commission’s “Apps for Communities” contest.
The challenge called for apps that help local government deliver quality-of-life improving information to populations that are typically disenfranchised or disconnected from broadband communications.
The app has been downloaded in 20 countries.
(Original Source: http://www.firerescue1.com/social-media-for-firefighters/articles/1130209-Colo-student-develops-Twitter-app-for-disasters/)
September 7th, 2011
FEMA App
In the new FEMA App, you’ll be able to:
When FEMA built the app, they kept the disaster survivor in mind, making sure much of the information would be available even if cell phone service isn’t, so you’ll be able to access the important information on how to safe after a disaster, as well as your family emergency meeting locations.
So as Administrator Fugate said, you can download our app today in the Android market, and look for FEMA App for Blackberry version 6 devices and iPhones in the coming weeks.
FEMA Text Messages
A new and separate service from the new app, our text message updates will allow cell phone users to receive text message updates from FEMA.
Text PREPARE to 43362 (4FEMA) to sign up to receive monthly disaster safety tips
Text SHELTER + your ZIP code to 43362 (4FEMA) to find the nearest shelter in your area (example: shelter 12345)
(For availability of shelters and services, contact your local emergency management agency.)
Text DRC + your ZIP code to 43362 (4FEMA) to find the nearest disaster recovery center in your area (for example, if you lived in Annandale, Virginia with a Zip Code of 22003, you’d text DRC 22003).
So download the app or text PREPARE to 43362. We encourage you to tell a family member, friend, or neighbor as well, so they can have disaster safety information always at their fingertips.
To read the entire article at it’s original source, log on to http://blog.fema.gov/2011/08/new-digital-tools-fema-app-and-text.html
September 1st, 2011
By Darryl J. Madden, Director, Ready Campaign
This September will mark the ten year anniversary of 9/11 and we ask you to take time to remember those lost as well as time to make sure you are prepared for future emergencies. September is National Preparedness Month (NPM), which was founded after 9/11 to increase preparedness in the U.S. It is a time to prepare yourself and those in your care for an unexpected emergency.
If you’ve seen the news recently, you know that emergencies can happen unexpectedly in communities just like yours, to people like you. We’ve seen tornado outbreaks, river floods and flash floods, historic earthquakes, tsunamis, and even water main breaks and power outages in U.S. cities affecting millions of people for days at a time.
This September, please prepare and plan in the event you must go for three days without electricity, water service, access to a supermarket, or local services for several days. Just follow these three steps:
Police, fire and rescue may not always be able to reach you quickly, such as if trees and power lines are down or if they’re overwhelmed by demand from an emergency. The most important step you can take in helping your local responders is being able to take care of yourself and those in your care; the more people who are prepared, the quicker the community will recover.
As FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate reminds us, “Individuals and families are the most important members of the nation’s emergency management team. Being prepared can save precious time if there
is a need to respond to an emergency.” For more information on NPM and for help getting prepared, visit Ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-READY, 1-888-SE-LISTO, and TTY 1-800-462-7585 for free information.
August 30th, 2011
Did you know texting might be a better option after a natural disaster? Meteorologist Chris Warren has some simple things you can do to keep your cell phone going when you need it the most.
August 29th, 2011
Coastal Reconstruction Group deployed a team up the Eastern seaboard to prepare properties in the path of Irene!
August 29th, 2011
By Ashleigh Coran
NEW ORLEANS, Lousiana – Today marks the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Gulf Coast.
The force of the hurricane wiped out entire communities in the region. Then, the levees broke in New Orleans, setting off catastrophic flooding.
Thousands of displaced families sought shelter at the Superdome.
More than 1,700 people were killed in the storm.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency called Katrina “the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history.”
(Original Source: http://www.kionrightnow.com/story/15350170/sixth-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina)
