Emergency Preparedness, Individual Rights, and Safety

Our communities will ensure that we are safe, secure and respected as we age.

Inclusive planning and strong systems can empower us in the face of adversity.

Aging sometimes increases our vulnerability, whether due to physical or cognitive changes or greater isolation. When it comes to things like emergency situations and elder abuse, these vulnerabilities can be highlighted, and we need strong systems to empower us, boost our resilience, and ensure our autonomy.

To achieve this goal, our strategies are:

Inclusive Emergency Preparedness and Response
Elder Justice

The frequency of natural disasters is growing. Histogram of weather/climate disasters in Minnesota with losses over 1 billion dollars each, where Minnesota experienced 8 major disasters in 1990–1999 and 17 disasters in 2021–2023.

How can our communities help boost our resilience as we age?

Approximately 70% of Minnesotans and Tribal elders ages 55 and older say they have taken steps to prepare themselves for emergencies affecting their home or community.

Inclusive Emergency Preparedness and Response

Communities and older adults can plan together to boost resilience and recovery in the face of disaster.

Public emergencies can take many forms. In recent years Minnesotans have faced a pandemic, civil unrest, and extreme weather events. Crises like these disproportionately threaten older adults who need extra assistance, and people of color and low-income people experience inequities during disaster response and recovery.¹ Ageism compounds these issues.²

However, older adults also have been found to contribute assets in disaster response—with their experience, resources, and ability to build relationships and support others.³

Community emergency plans can boost resiliency by more deeply integrating older adults into their plans, including empowering older adults to prepare themselves. Deliberate strategies must be developed to ensure inclusive, equitable planning and response for all.

In 2022, nearly half of all reports made to the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center were about a vulnerable adult age 65 or older. Stacked bar chart of reports where 49% (about 30 thousand) were about a person ages 65+, 38% were about a person ages 18–64, and 13% were about a person age unknown.

Elder Justice

We all deserve to have autonomy and choice about our lives, and freedom from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

This is significant, as around 1 in 10 Americans age 65-plus living in the community have experienced some form of abuse, and that is considered a low estimate.⁴ The Blueprint can help coordinate efforts that address prevention, response and equity to empower and protect us as we grow older.

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Featured Statistic Sources

National Centers for Environmental Information, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, Minnesota Summary, April 2024.

MN Age Friendly Statewide Needs Assessment, 2021.

MN DHS Vulnerable Adult Protection Dashboard, March 2023.

Footnotes

¹ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Disaster Technical Assistance Center.

² HelpAge International, 2020. If Not Now, When? Keeping Promises to Older People Affected by Humanitarian Crises.

³ Chandra A., Acosta J., Howard S., Uscher-Pines L., Williams M., Yeung D., Garnett J. and Meredith L. Building Community Resilience to Disasters: A Way Forward to Enhance National Health Security. Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation; 2011.

⁴ National Center on Elder Abuse, 2021.