the vulnerable populations,

the vulnerable populations,

Discussion three,

Vulnerable populations can be described as “Any individual, group, or community whose circumstances create barriers to obtaining or understanding information, or the ability to react as the general population. … Circumstances that may create barriers include, but are not limited to age; physical, mental, emotional, or cognitive status; culture; ethnicity; religion; language; citizenship; geography; or socioeconomic status” (Emergency Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations: People with Special Health-care Needs). Knowing this definition you can see why they would be the ones to suffer in an emergency situation. Many of them have limited mobility which can cause issues when trying to evacuate an area. Those with language barriers may not necessarily understand directions that are being told to them, along with those who are hard of hearing may not be hearing instructions correclty. Furthermore, those with mental disabillities may struggle to grasp the gravity of emergency situations and either refuse to leave, or become violent with first resonders due to fear of the unknown. With the possiblity of all of these issues emergency planning must be done in great detail to ensure the safety of the vulnerable populations, along with the safety of those responding to them.

Discussion Four,

According to the Minnesota Public Health Emergency Training Series Module on vulnerable populations, “A vulnerable population is any individual or group of people with any physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, cultural, ethnic, socio-economic status, language, or other circumstance that creates barriers to understanding and/or barriers to the ability to act or react in the requested or anticipated manner.” (UM Public Health Staff, 2005). The key to understanding why these vulnerable populations are the ones to suffer most in an emergency incident is in the very definition of what makes them vulnerable in the first place. The fact that these individuals have a condition or lifestyle choice (sometimes not a choice) that prevents them from understanding and/or acting or reacting in the way that is expected is what makes them targets of being the most impacted from an incident to begin with. The best way that I can explain it is with an analogy that I have seen with expectations in a school setting. Imagine a teacher asking 4 students to climb the same tree, the 4 students are a monkey, a cat, a snake, and a fish. Some students simply cannot climb the tree without help. Now, imagine the same scenario, but instead of the teacher asking students, it’s an emergency worker explaining that the only way that your life will be saved is if you climb this tree. In emergency situations, the task being asked is not the problem, it’s a person’s ability to complete the task. There are some portions of every community that have differing abilities that will need help performing the tasks that need to be done.