Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy

Sato Ashida is an associate professor in the Community and Behavioral Health Department at the College of Public Health. Ashida’s 2018 policy fellow project at the Iowa Institute of Public Health Research and Policy brought key stakeholders together to develop policy to improve the delivery of emergency management services to older Iowans.

Older adults in the community are especially vulnerable to negative health outcomes during and after disasters. If various agencies involved in emergency management had pertinent information provided by and about older Iowans, outcomes of disaster response and recovery processes conducted by state agencies and local emergency management services could be vastly improved. However, there are barriers to gathering and sharing information about individual residents across agencies and institutions.

Ashida previously developed an online program called PrepWise that allows older adults to establish personalized emergency and disaster plans. The plans include information about medical care and medication needs, functional limitations, cognitive difficulties, emergency support network members, service animals, and other important health needs.
Ashida’s goal was to develop policy that will allow state and local agencies to access information pertinent to emergency management that PrepWise participants consent to share with agencies in order to enhance the delivery of emergency services to older Iowans.

Her first step was to establish a core group comprised of state agencies as well as county experts in emergency management. This group reviewed efforts in other states and explored dynamics needed to implement a statewide policy that allows incorporating PrepWise into existing disaster management infrastructure. Once policy recommendations were developed and vetted by this broad group, additional stakeholders can be identified and involved in expanding awareness and dissemination of this potentially life-saving tool.