June
Isaacson Kailes (http://www.jik.com)
consulting,
writing and training focus on building actionable disability
competencies,
capabilities and capacities in health care and emergency management to
ensure
people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs
are
included in service delivery processes, protocols, policies, audits,
exercises
and training. June
works with
organizations to translate the laws, regulations, case law and guidance
into practical
tools and operating procedures that close service gaps, prevent civil
rights
violations, and deliver equally effective services. She
concentrates on the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” to achieve
physical,
programmatic, communication, and equipment access.
June
is one of just a handful of people with disabilities who focused
on
disability related emergency issues decades before Hurricane
Katrina. As far back as the 1970s and 80s, June documented
the deep
and dramatic lack of equal and inclusionary emergency services for
people with
disabilities.
June
has over four decades of emergency experience and works
internationally, as well as with local, state, and federal governments,
and
with community-based organizations. Her breadth and depth of experience
in
access and functional needs, and her work as a writer, trainer,
researcher,
policy analyst, advocate, subject matter expert and expert witness is
widely
known and respected. She has the unique ability to blend and
bridge two
worlds: disability lived experiences and emergency management
experience.
She
has worked nationally with FEMA, the Centers for Disease Control,
Department of Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services on
policy,
planning, and training issues. She co-chaired The United States
Department of
Homeland Security’s working group which developed a Functional and
Medical
Support Sheltering Target Capabilities List, worked on FEMA's
Guidance on
Planning for Integration of Functional
Needs Support
Services in General Population Shelters and
is a member of FEMA's National Advisory Council.
In
the emergency
management world, June is a pioneer, leader, and innovator. Seven
examples of
her impact and influence include:
3.
3. Conceiving, promoting, and moving the emergency management
world from the vague “special needs” focus to operationalizing an
access
and functional
needs approach to
planning and
response. This fosters a clearer understanding of who is included
in the
large numbers and diversity of people with disabilities and others with
access
and functional needs. June’s CMIST is a memory tool that helps you
remember and plan for the five functional needs that individuals will
likely
have in an emergency: communication; maintaining health; independence;
support,
safety, and self-determination; and transportation.
CMIST
offers clarity, precision, and specificity for building competencies to
inclusive planning and service practices. Emergency plans based on
optimizing
function rather than “specialness” increases the chance of successful
accommodation of predictable needs. In
emergencies,
people with disabilities continue to lose their health, their
independence, and
sometimes their lives. This is because over decades, information
transfer
regarding these predictable needs, and lessons observed, relayed, and
documented, are not integrated into plans, policies, procedures,
training, and
exercises. June’s work focuses on consistently and repeatedly applying
these
lessons so that they can be eventually claimed as lessons learned.
4.
4. Originating and working with the State of
California to adopt and implement the use of Functional
Assessment Service Teams (FAST).
These teams strategically link government, nonprofit,
and business sectors to work with individuals with access and
functional
needs to enable people to maintain mobility, health, safety,
independence,
during and after emergencies. Teams blend the competencies and
skill sets
of governments with those of community disability services and help to
retool
interventions that reflected old, but still common, stigmatizing
biases,
stereotypes and beliefs about people with disabilities. Versions
of this
model are being put into practice in California and other states and
counties.
5.
5. Documenting the critical need to accurately
evaluate the use of emergency
registries
to avoid symbolic
planning (i.e.,
planning
which cannot be fully operationalized to achieve even the most
well-intentioned
objectives) and think through the implications of using a registry as
the sole
or primary answer to addressing access and functional needs in
emergencies.
June
publishes
extensively, and some of her frequently used and cited publications
include:
Planning
and response:
Preparedness:
As
a critical thinker
and lifelong learner, she never hesitates to critic and revise her
prior work.
June believes the emergency sector’s performance depends on resilience
and
flexibility to evolve as economic, learning, technology, legal, and
social
landscapes change.
Available on
request
jik@pacbell.net
© 1998 - 2019 June Isaacson
Kailes, Disability Policy Consultant, All Rights Reserved.
Created 11/8/97
| Updated 09.8.19