Preventing Falls in Elderly Persons

Literature concerning the 1995 Chicago heat wave (Semenza et al. 1995) demonstrates the devastating toll physical stress took on the elderly living alone and forgotten in sweltering apartments who were afraid to open their windows, and were too poor to have fans or obtain the needed food and water for survival. Some public health department and other government agencies are working together to go door-to-door to find these hidden residents, help them prepare, and to be able to reach them if needed during a disaster. Issues addressed in this paper apply to these harder to reach populations as well, but...