The vulnerability of the elderly in disasters: the need for an effective resilience policy

This article presents an analysis on the elderly vulnerability in un/natural disasters, since the elderly may have a higher degree of fragility in emergency situations among the vulnerable group. The aim is to support the increasing of the elderly resilience during critical events under the Protection and Civil Defense. The data collection performed in the methodology of this research comprises elderly rights stipulated by the Brazilian law, reports produced by official agencies, international documentation and general literatures which address this issue. The several Brazilian governmental projects and programmes focussed in the elderly vulnerability has not been effective in relation to natural disasters. Therefore, the results encourage the Civil Defense to develop specific protocols of prevention, preparedness and rescue to the elderly. Adapted from the source document.