VA GPD Organizational Disaster Plans
View Authors and Acknowledgements
As a VA Grant and Per Diem (GPD) funded provider, your role of caring for our nation’s Veterans is vital to the lives of the individuals you serve. The VA GPD program also cares about your organization’s success and wants to make sure you can safely care for Veterans during disasters and emergencies. The GPD Inspection Handbook (#27) requires “a written disaster plan encompassing natural and human caused disasters coordinated with local emergency management entity.” Disasters can happen anytime; this is a good time to review your plan, make sure it covers the most likely emergencies, and think about what needs to be added. This Guide helps GPD providers create plans for the most likely disasters and emergencies and ensure existing plans include everything that is required.
What Is This Guide and How Do I Use It?
This Guide walks GPD providers through the steps of creating disaster plans that meet the level of disaster preparedness the VA GPD program expects. The Guide is divided into 5 sections, each covering a different preparedness activity. Each section has a template with instructions for completion. Once completed, these templates will be removed and compiled into a single document that will become your Organizational Disaster Plan. The sections are:
SECTION 2: ORGANIZATIONAL DISASTER PLANS
SECTION 3: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FOR STAFF
SECTION 4: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FOR VETERANS
SECTION 5: MITIGATION & PREPAREDNESS: FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES
This diagram shows how the 5 sections are linked together:
Disaster planning is an iterative process. It begins with understanding your risks, which provides the information needed to develop organizational disaster plans for evacuation, relocation, or shelter-in-place. These plans set the stage for ensuring that people, buildings, equipment, and supplies are prepared and safe during a disaster. Similarly, the information you collect while preparing your staff, Veteran residents, buildings, and supplies for a disaster will shape the conditions you must plan for in your organizational disaster plans.
Depending on what your services look like, you will adapt some of these sections to fit your organization. For example, if your Veterans live independently in the community with no onsite staff, you will adapt evacuation and shelter-in-place to fit that model. In that case, Veteran training and communication will be even more important. You’ll want to review what procedures should be followed for evacuation more regularly with Veterans, since staff will not be available during the first moments of an evacuation or lockdown.
We Already Have an Emergency Plan. Why Do We Need this Guide to Plan for Disasters?
Disasters could be on a larger scale than what your current emergency plan covers.
- Infectious disease outbreaks (e.g., flu, Hepatitis A, COVID-19) will require screening and social distancing.
- Natural disasters could destroy communication towers, making it difficult to communicate with staff or Veterans.
- Community-wide disasters could result in power outages and require Veterans stay elsewhere overnight.
Consider how you would plan for contingencies beyond the first hours of a disaster.
- Veterans could be evacuated from the building overnight, possibly having to relocate.
- Veterans and staff could be forced to shelter in place for hours or days (e.g., wildfires, chemical spills).
- Infectious disease outbreaks will involve modified staffing protocols (e.g., encouraging them to stay away from work to avoid the spread of illness, or changing how essential staff provide services).
Veterans in your programs could end up without anywhere to go if your services are disrupted.
- The Veterans you serve will depend on you during and after a disaster.
- You will face growing demand for your services—from both newly displaced Veterans and those you already serve—at a time when staff are experiencing more stress.
Additional Resources to Help with Planning
Writing disaster plans can feel overwhelming. Luckily, there are many resources available to help you along the way. The following groups may offer technical assistance or guidance to help with planning. You may also want to consider how your organization can collaborate with them following a disaster.
- Local Emergency Managers: Police, Fire, Sheriff, Department of Emergency Management, etc. The GPD Inspection Disaster Plan requirement encourages you to coordinate with these entities.
- VA Medical Center (VAMC) GPD Liaison or VAMC Police Service: Both entities have an official role in the GPD inspection.
- Websites for Credentialing Agencies:
- National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
- Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
Annex Resources
This Guide should have everything you need to develop a disaster plan and get your organization prepared. However, we’ve added a few extra resources at the end of this Guide that can help you integrate preparedness throughout your organization, including websites that provide information to assist in the 5 sections. In addition, we have included the following resources:
Finding Others to Help You
This Guide is written for one or two people to be able to create and champion an entire disaster plan on their own. However, if you are fortunate enough to have others within your organization who are interested in helping, keeping them organized and engaged is important when it comes to keeping the momentum going! We’ll provide tips and websites on creating a disaster team. Throughout the Guide, we also identify places where others can help.
Psychological Wellness for Staff and Veterans
Staff will be an essential resource for the organization when disaster strikes. However, employees are also likely to experience stress and burnout during disaster response, particularly in a regional disaster. Additionally, Veterans will need extra psychological support to ensure their continued well-being in a disaster. This provides websites where you can find resources to ensure wellness and emotional support.
Introducing Preparedness to Employees: The Launch Meeting
Organizational preparedness often works best if all staff are invested and engaged. Disasters can strike at any time, and any staff member could be the first on the scene. Every staff member can potentially make a difference in a disaster response. Having a meeting to introduce preparedness—whether with all staff or only senior staff members—can generate more awareness, support, and involvement in the effort. If you decide to hold a launch meeting, we recommend doing so immediately after Section 1.
Practicing Disaster Response: The Tabletop Exercise
After completing the Guide, it’s important to get the organization to practice talking through scenarios to familiarize all staff with the disaster plan and what their role will be. A tabletop exercise is an excellent way to begin rehearsing disaster responses with a scenario while staff are all in a single room, where they can discuss a real example and learn from others. The tabletop exercise can be done at any point after Section 3, when staff disaster preparedness and staff disaster protocols and trainings are outlined.
Disaster Plan Annexes
- Annex 1_Sample Content for Drafting Sections 2-3
- Annex 2_Additional Resources for Drafting Sections 1-5
- Annex 3_Optional Additional Resources For Preparedness Planning
Links to Training Videos
- Overview of the GPD Disaster Planning Website: VA GPD National Office Webinar
- Homeless Provider Disaster Planning Training Part 1 – Section 1: Introduction and Identifying Hazards
- Homeless Provider Disaster Planning Training Part 2 – Section 2: Emergency Response Plans
- Homeless Provider Disaster Planning Training Part 3 – Supplemental Training- Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP Planning)
Authors: June L. Gin, Michelle D. Balut, Aram Dobalian, Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC). VEMEC is a research and evaluation center within the VA that works to apply the evidence base in emergency management to help VA implement best practices, strengthen its capacities, and bolster its ability to care for our Nation’s Veterans during and after disasters.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Susan Schmitz and Fred Hagigi for their contribution to content development. Special thanks for feedback on draft materials provided by VAMC Homeless Program staff and GPD grantees from: VA San Francisco, VA Connecticut, VA Providence, Wyoming VA, Columbia VA, Ralph H. Johnson VA, and VISN 2 (New York/New Jersey VA Healthcare Network). Lastly, we would like to thank our advisory committee members, Emily Solorzano, Christopher D. Keeton, and Nikola Alenkin, for their review and feedback of our draft documents.
