HEN Emergency Preparedness

Disasters often happen quickly and without warning. In BC and the Yukon, a variety of disasters can occur. Disasters include earthquakes, floods, landslides, forest fires, avalanches, tsunamis, storms and hazardous material spills. A disaster is a major event that directly affects you and your ability to give yourself Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) at home.

You are at risk during a disaster because you need power to operate your feeding pump. You also need water for washing your hands, flushing your feeding tube and rinsing your feeding bags and syringes. Power and clean water might not be available for many days in a disaster. Also, telephones might not work, roads and bridges might be blocked and hospitals as well as emergency rooms might be crowded with injured people.

Being prepared for a disaster is a shared responsibility. Don’t be caught off-guard!

The BC HEN Program has developed a booklet to teach adult and pediatric patients and their families how to be prepared for a disaster – My Emergency Preparedness Plan: Information For and About Adult and Pediatric Tube-Fed Patients of the BC Home Enteral Nutrition (HEN) Program. You can print either the booklet in full or specific pages contained within.