September is National Preparedness Month. Emergency situations, such as tornados, hurricanes, heatwaves and blizzards, can significantly impact everyone’s safety, but they can be especially upsetting and confusing for individuals living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Being prepared is crucial. There are steps and precautions you can take to be as ready as possible. However, if you find yourself in an emergency situation and you haven’t made advance preparations, there are still actions you can take to keep you and the person living with dementia as safe as possible.

Plan ahead

• Find out residential facility disaster plans. If the individual lives in a residential facility, learn about its disaster/evacuation plans. Find out who is responsible for evacuating the person in the event of an emergency.

• Identify those who will help you. Are there friends or relatives you can stay with if you have to evacuate? If the person receives routine health procedures at a clinic or with home health, who are the back-up service providers? Have contact information easily accessible.

• Learn how to get prescriptions and care. Purchase extra medication to have a supply on hand. Download Medicare’s Getting Care and Drugs in a Disaster Area. It explains how Medicare beneficiaries have special rights to get out-of-network care if they live in an area where the President has declared a disaster.

• Make sure medical records are accessible. It’s important to have access to health records, especially in the case of an emergency. There are now many options for storing personal health records, including online services that make it possible to access records from anywhere in the world. Regardless of how you choose to store personal health information, make sure there are people other than the primary caregiver who have access to or copies of the person with dementia’s medical history, medications, physician information and family contacts.

The Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline is available around the clock, 365 days a year at 800.272.3900 should you need assistance.