Academy releases emergency preparedness tools to enable millions more people to shelte...( Although the nation has invested bil...),Health

Although the nation has invested billions of dollars preparing to respond to emergencies, current plans leave millions of Americans at risk because they do not account for critical problems people face when they actually try to protect themselves. To fix this fundamental flaw, The New York Academy of Medicine is today releasing a report and toolsavailable at www.redefiningreadiness.netthat will enable households, work places, schools and early childhood/youth programs, and governments to anticipate and address problems they would face in emergencies. The tools are released during National Preparedness Month, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The report, With the Publics Knowledge, We Can Make Sheltering in Place Possible, is based on two years work gathering the insights and experiences of nearly 2,000 people who live and work in four communities around the country. It identifies serious and unanticipated problems that currently make it neither feasible nor safe for many people to shelter in place. In conjunction with that report, the Academy is releasing four Shelter-in-Place Issue Sets (in both Spanish and English) to help members of households and organizations recognize and address their own vulnerabilities in these kinds of emergencies. Sheltering in place means staying inside whatever building you happen to be ina workplace, school, store, or at homefor a period of a few hours to several days in order to stay safe, even if that requires you to be separated from other family members.

Sheltering in place is a very important protective strategy in situations ranging from dirty bombs, toxic explosions, and chemical spills to much more common emergencies, like electrical blackouts and snowstorms, said Roz D. Lasker, MD, Director of the Academys Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health and Division of Public Health, and lead author of the r
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