Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (Old)

Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) Toolkit

An all-hazards approach to enabling emergency preparedness

Co-designed and tested with people with disability, Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) enables people to self-assess their preparedness, capabilities and support needs and develop a personal emergency plan for how they will: (a) manage their support needs in emergencies; and (b) act together with their support network before, during, and after a disaster. P-CEP focuses on function (not impairments), local community assets, and cross-sector collaboration as the basis for removing barriers that increase risk for people with disability and other groups at greater risk in emergencies. P-CEP emphasises the capabilities of people with disability and the roles of multiple stakeholders in reducing disaster risk, consistent with Australia’s national Emergency Management and Disability Strategies. Click on the P-CEP Resource Package for an introduction and to see P-CEP in action through lived experiences and research evidence that show how the P-CEP works.

P-CEP Workbook

A conversation guide used by people with disability to tailor emergency preparedness to their individual support needs

Making P-CEP Plans Excerpt_subtitles.mp4.m4v from Michelle Villeneuve on Vimeo.

P-CEP Workbook - Overview

Screen reader enabled PCEP Workbook

Get the Form Fillable (Word)

Get the Form Fillable (PDF)

P-CEP Toolkit

A toolkit used by service providers to enable emergency preparedness in others

A Process Tool and Framework for Enabling Disaster Preparedness with People with Chronic Health Conditions and Disability

P-CEP with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities

Flood Risk

Project background

This project is part of the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy which is being led by Infrastructure NSW. The Flood Strategy includes a Community Resilience Program which is focussed on building the resilience of communities most at risk of floods. Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley are considered a community of concern. Those in the CALD community who are living with, or supporting someone, with a disability are recognised to have additional support needs when it comes to preparing and responding to natural disasters and emergencies such as flooding.

Flood risk awareness

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley is the most flood exposed area in NSW. The floodplain covers a large area from Bents Basin near Wallacia to the Brooklyn Bridge. The floodplain falls mainly within the Penrith, Hawkesbury, Blacktown and The Hills local government areas. If you live or work in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley you are at risk of flood. Your home, your family and your animals may be vulnerable when it floods so it is important that you are prepared.

Floods in this valley are particularly dangerous due to the ‘bathtub effect’ that causes floodwater to back-up which creates deep and dangerous flooding. This video explains why flooding in this valley is so dangerous: https://youtu.be/28SN9KixO2I

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley has a long history of damaging and dangerous floods. The largest flood in living memory was in November 1961 when water reached just over 15 metres above normal river height at Windsor. Five of the 10 largest foods on record have occurred since Warragamba Dam was completed in 1960. The last major flood was in 1990. You can view footage of the impacts of the past significant floods in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley here: https://youtu.be/jo9VbKbMZ6o

Personal emergency preparedness planning is key

It will flood again in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley so it is important to be prepared. Personal emergency preparedness and planning is key to knowing what you will do to protect yourself, your family and your animals in a natural disaster such as a flood. This is particularly important if you or someone you live with or care for is living with a disability, as you may need more time, additional resources and support.

Below are some information and video resources to support those in the CALD community who are living with, or supporting someone, with a disability. These Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness resources focus on how you and those you care for can prepare for natural disaster and hazards such as flood, before an event happens.

Person- Centred Emergency Preparedness_ Building Community Capacity from Michelle Villeneuve on Vimeo.

PCEP_ Individual Planning Conversations from Michelle Villeneuve on Vimeo.

Relevant links

The NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) has a range of resources to help you understand your risks around floods, storms and tsunami in your local area https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/your-local-risk/

If you live in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley, NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) has specific resources on the risks for your suburb: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/hawkesbury-nepean-floods. There are links available for the local councils in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley floodplain where you can seek information on flood risk for your individual property.

There are also a range of other resources to help you prepare for a flood in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

Know the signs of flooding in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/media/3233/knowing-the-signs-of-flooding-fact-sheet.pdf

Understand where to go: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/media/3174/know-how-to-get-out-fact-sheet.pdf

How to prepare a Get Ready to Go Kit: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/media/3411/your-get-ready-to-go-kit-fact-sheet.pdf

Community-Centred Emergency Preparedness

A facilitator guide for enabling P-CEP conversations in a group format

Community Centred Emergency Preparedness: Facilitator Guide

Making an Impact with P-CEP

In this video a service provider, disability advocates, and emergency personnel focus on the connections they are making to support and advocate for people with disability in emergencies. Key messages emphasise the importance of emergency personnel reaching out to people in the community who already have networked connections to people with disability. These people are the starting point for increasing understanding and awareness about what people with disability can do for themselves and what they need to protect their safety in emergency situations. Disability advocates and service providers are “finding their role” as they learn and work together with emergency personnel and the people they support; to ensure that everyone in the community is aware, safe and prepared for disasters.

Bec explains the importance of not just listening, but learning and working together with people with disability so that you can experience what access and inclusion is like through their eyes. She shares an experience of working with an architect. Bec explains how the experience made her feel and why it is so important to invite the voice of people with disability into all planning and practices that affect their lives.

In this video disability advocates, Uncle Willie, Brendon, and Grant explain the importance of emergency managers sitting together with people with disability to learn and work together about ways to remove barriers to access for people with disability in emergencies. Informed by their lived experiences perspectives, these peer advocates offer advice to emergency personnel on specific actions they can take to increase the active and meaningful participation of people with disability in emergency management planning.

Emergency management coordinators John Hannan and Michelle McNeice talk about how the Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) supports contingency planning for emergencies, builds individual resilience, and enables resilience through support networks. They describe how emergency personnel work with their community, offer advice on how to get started with your own preparedness plan, and discuss, with examples, how to develop networked support for an emergency preparedness plan that works for you.

Reports – Evaluations of person-centred emergency preparedness support

P-CEP Peer Leadership Interstate Program Delivery Evaluation Report.

Get Ready, Plan Ahead. Locally Driven Disability Inclusive Emergency Planning – Gold Coast Pilot Project Report.

Locally Driven Disability Inclusive Emergency Management Planning in Victoria: Report on the P-CEP Peer Action Leadership Program.

Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (PCEP) in the CALD Community.

Emergency Preparedness Surveys of Victorian Citizens and Community-Based Service Providers.

Projects

A selection of research projects from Collaborating 4 Inclusion

DIDRR Framework & Toolkit for Collaborative Action

Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness

Disability Inclusive Emergency Planning (DIEP)

Emergency Sector Disability Awareness (ESDA)

Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDRR) Australia

Disability and Disaster Resilient Queensland

Leave Nobody Behind, a project in New South Wales.

Leave Nobody Behind (NSW)

Disability Inclusive Emergency Planning, a project in Victoria.

Disability Inclusive Emergency Planning Victoria

Homelessness & Disaster

Get Ready Together WA

Funded under the joint State and Commonwealth Natural Disaster Resilience Program

The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSW Government, unless the views expressed in the Project Materials have been publicly supported by the Government or a government agency.