Interview Guide for Age Friendly Initiative Staff

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-XXXX

Exp. Date xx/xx/20xx

Appendix C.2.a: Interview Guide for Age Friendly Initiative Staff

Date:

Time: (Start) (Stop)

Introductions

• Interviewers

• Interviewee(s)

Interviewee’s Name, Title, Organization:

Interviewee’s Scope of Responsibility:

Background

The RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organization, is conducting a CDC-funded study to evaluate the impact that Age Friendly initiatives have on older adult well-being and resilience to emergencies. We define an emergency to include earthquakes, extended power outage, terrorist event, or a weather-related event such as a winter storm, heat, hurricane, tornado, wildfire, or flood. We hope to spend the next 30 minutes discussing your thoughts on your Age Friendly initiative, its structure and goals geared to older adults, and those that are specific to emergency preparedness.

Informed Consent

Your participation in this discussion is completely voluntary and we can stop at any point.

Public reporting burden of this collection of information is estimated to average 30 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to CDC/ATSDR Information Collection Review Office, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS D-74, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; ATTN: PRA (0920-XXXX).

RAND will use the information you provide for research purposes only. Your responses will be kept secure. We will not link your name to the information that you provide. While every effort will be made to protect your individual identity, it may be possible for others to identify you because of the role you play in your Age Friendly initiative. As such, you should not tell us anything you do not want anyone inside or outside your organization to know.

We will be taking notes during our conversation today. The notes will be destroyed at the end of the study, and no one outside of the research team will see them. There are no consequences if you decline to participate.

If you have questions about this study you may contact the Principal Investigator, Joie Acosta, by phone at 703-413-1100 extension 5324. If you have any questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, please contact the Human Subjects Protection Committee at RAND, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, (310) 393-0411, ext. 6369.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

Do you agree to participate in this interview?

No  Okay, thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Yes  Thank you very much. We really appreciate your support.

Interview Questions

I’d like to start by asking you some questions about the structure of your Age Friendly initiative

1. Where is your Age Friendly initiative in the implementation process? (Probe: as described in the AARP/WHO process: developing a strategic action plan, already have a strategic action plan, implementing strategic plan)

2. What is the staffing structure (leadership positions, support staff, tasks that these groups are responsible for)?

3. Did you have any elected officials or public agencies involved as stakeholders in the initial startup of the AF community? Or any private sector involvement?
   
   

   1. If yes, who? How does that involvement impact the development of Age Friendly community goals and activities?

We are hoping to gain some insight into your Age Friendly initiative’s emergency preparedness activities.

4. What do you perceive to be the greatest needs in terms of preparing older adults living in your Age Friendly Community for an emergency?

5. Does your Age Friendly initiative currently engage in any activities that support these needs? Some examples of activities include raising awareness about being prepared, ensuring emergency alerts reach residents, preparing or providing emergency supply kits, or developing evacuation plans.

If yes,

1. What are they? Are there any gaps in the scope of activities or in how well these are carried out?

2. Who initiates or develops these services to support older adults?

3. Are there any gaps in the scope of activities or in how well these are carried out?

4. If the [name of city/county’s] administration wanted to measure progress on improving the emergency preparedness of older adults in your community, what metrics would you recommend?

If not,

5. Why (not a high priority, not important?) Are there any other barriers (financial, staffing, relationship related problems)?

6. When do you anticipate including emergency preparedness activities into your Age Friendly initiative?

Now I’d like to ask about linkages with any local health departments (Note to interviewer: includes general activities, not just emergency preparedness activities)

6. Does your Age Friendly initiative currently engage (communicate, collaborate, or have a formal relationship) with a local public health department?

If yes,

1. Is it a local or state health department? Or both?

2. What kinds of activities do they provide in support of your Age Friendly initiative? What do you think they could provide but have not yet?

3. Can you share the contact information for whoever you are working with? We’d like to ask them some questions about how they help meet the needs of older adults living in Age Friendly communities.

If no,

4. Would your Age Friendly initiative like to have that kind of engagement? What would it take to have a more closely linked relationship with the public health department?

Now I’d like to ask about linkages with any local health departments specifically on emergency preparedness activities

Does the public health department play any role in preparing older adults in the case of an emergency? If yes, do you think your Age Friendly initiative’s activities are aligned with those of the health department’s activities?

7. Do any other agencies (Homeland Security or department of emergency management) play a role in emergency preparedness for older adults? If so, what do they do?

4