NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 79

frequency in toxicology reports of people
who have died in a fire, regardless of age.
A 2019 study from Ireland found that 76
percent of fire victims in the country aged
60 and over had alcohol and/or drugs in
their systems at the time of death. Another
study from Australia found that people
who died in fires over a 10-year period,
and who had tested positive for drugs,
had an average of 1.5 psychotropic drugs
in their systems at the time of death. One
study found that 74 percent of fire victims
aged 65 and over were smokers, and
64 percent were considered " problem
drinkers. "
While the details demonstrate that medical
and recreational drugs have an influence
on fall risk-and at the very least
don't help when it comes to fires-there
appears to be little, if any, targeted outreach
to older adults. A survey of existing
fall and fire prevention programs conducted
by FireTox found that " specific information
on medication uses or medication
types and its association with fall risks is
not addressed " in any of the fall programs.
None of the fire prevention programs reviewed
included information for seniors
on medication use and fire risk.
Some of that likely has to do with a
lack of understanding of the extent of the
problem among educators, said Ashby
Anderson, a sergeant with the fire prevention
bureau at the Louisville (Kentucky)
Fire Department. But she believes it also
stems from a reluctance broach topics
that might be considered off-limits or too
personal.
" There's an aversion to concise messaging
in community-safety conversations
that's rooted in concern over how it will be
received, " Anderson said. " We should be
encouraging an open dialogue around the
real-world challenges that our most vulnerable
populations face, because a lack
of authentic engagement isn't working for
us. So let's put everything on the table,
from trips and falls to whether your alarms
work, and have direct conversations that
translate into meaningful outcomes. "
The messaging being developed for
the Steps to Safety program will not chastize
people about their habits or medication
regimen, according to Andrea Vastis,
director of public education at NFPA.
Instead, it will focus on making sure older
adults are aware of the known risks of
medications, falls, and fires. They will also
be encouraged to keep a current list of the
medications they're taking and review that
list frequently with a medical professional.
" We're not looking for our fire department
and our elder-care services people
to pretend they're pharmacists or doctors,
but there are some key messages
that come out of this, " Vastis said. " We
want people to stay on their medications,
we want people to adhere to their regimen,
but we also want them to be aware
of things that could happen on the other
side of it. " -J.R.
millions of vulnerable seniors out there. Between 2013 and
2017, NFPA trained about 400 people on how to administer
the program and conduct " train the trainer " events in their
communities; all of those training sessions were in-person
events.
The Steps to Safety training, which will be rolled out
in the next few months, takes a different, more scalable
approach. NFPA is using about $200,000 of the FEMA
grant money to build a series of free online training modules
that will educate users on Steps to Safety's core fire
and fall messaging. One module will even simulate three
separate home visits, allowing attendees to interact with a
virtual resident, spot potential hazards, and make decisions
on how to proceed. The training will also help participants
create an action plan for how to best administer the
program in their community and incorporate it into a Community
Risk Reduction plan.
'The person who's 50 years old right
now probably lives on their phone,
which is why we need to digitize our
assets and the way we deliver the
messages. That's the way we need to
reach tomorrow's older adult.'
As with the videos targeting seniors, the aim of the new
digitized training approach is to attract a much wider audience
of fire departments and other organizations, especially
those that had not previously offered fall and fire prevention
programs for seniors. " In Kentucky, 76 percent of our fire service
is volunteer, and most of those departments don't have
the funding or the personnel to do a lot of these in-person
trainings, " said Anderson, of the Louisville Fire Department.
" To be able to make this training accessible to everyone is
going to be a game changer. It will get more fire departments
familiar with the program and get more of these safety messages
into their communities. "
Eventually, the online training portal and its ancillary features
will also help communities collect and share the data
from their outreach efforts, which could help yield better
insights about what's working and what isn't. Information
like that would be vital, safety advocates say, not only for
departments but also for NFPA as it strives to keep Steps
to Safety materials responsive to the shifting needs of fire
departments and seniors in the community.
" We have departments that are doing a great job of collecting
the data and documenting their results, and what
we'd really like to do is help them do a better job of it, "
Vastis said. " If we could collect that data on a large scale and
analyze it, that will help inform the next iterations of the
program and enable us to continue to push out updates to
the departments. "
Beyond the stats
While no one is under the illusion that Steps to Safety will
solve what has proven to be a massive societal problem,
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