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Seniors in emergencies and the specifics of working with them.
KOPECKÁ, Libuše
The current state of the issues of population ageing is one of the demographic trends of the present, which becomes worldwide the problem of the 21st century. People live to a great age and simultaneously birth rate is falling. Nowadays old age is presented as negative part of life, which should be put off as much as possible. On the contrary, the cult of youth, health and performance is emphasized. Ageing is an unavoidable and very individual process. In its course many needs are changing, some of them are accented more, some of them, on the contrary, lower their importance. The old people are not able to adapt themselves and they do not react so promptly to changes in progress in all spheres of the social life. They thereby become an age group that is more and more endangered and needs an interest and attention of the society. The principles of human rights should be applied regardless the age of a citizen, state of his/her mind and health, income level, social situation or level of education. Rights and freedoms express autonomy of old people and are not even decreased by their placement into hospital or sanitary facilities. The question arises of whether the bodies and organizations participating in crisis management are ready enough for specifics of work with seniors and whether the seniors are informed enough in case of emergency. The hypothesis is based on the assertion that crisis management allows for specifics of seniors and their approach to life and that seniors are sufficiently informed about their rights and duties in case of the occurrence of emergency. By evaluation of available literature, methodical material and standards of the integrated rescue system I realized that the group of seniors is not considered to be a separate category, but it is part of the group with special needs. Members of individual sections of the integrated rescue system have awareness of the specifics of that category and they receive other information concerning this sphere, however, they do not deal with that as with the separate category. The workers in social services, helping professions and non-profit organizations pay attention to the group and problems of seniors. I also explored the situation in neighbouring countries of Europe and it is similar. Seniors are not sufficiently prepared for emergency. I can see the problem in the global level ofpopulation readiness. The reason does not lie in the fact that conditions for their readiness are not created or the readiness does not exist at all. The problem is its limited use by inhabitants owing to underestimation of risks and dangers. People are uninterested in that, they think they will not be endangered and affected, which results in the state when neither an individual nor their communities are prepared for emergency and they do not know how to behave rationally and safely during emergency. I can thus see the solution in meaningful deepening of awareness, necessity of personal readiness and notification of a possible risk of the occurrence of emergency and its consequences not only among seniors.
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