Tip Sheets for First Responders

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, medical personnel, law enforcement officers, National Guardsmen and other first responders in the Gulf States used information in the Tip Sheets to help evacuate people with disabilities who had been stranded in their homes.

In southern New Mexico, a municipal law enforcement agency used information in the Tip Sheets to safely move an inebriated person in a power wheelchair from a busy downtown intersection.

In North Dakota, school health nurses used the Tip Sheets to work with students with intellectual disabilities who were being evacuated during unprecedented floods that swept the state.

The Tip Sheets For First Responders were developed in response to requests from first responders who wanted quick, easy-to-understand guidance on how to effectively work with people with a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities in emergency situations.

Now in its fifth edition, the laminated, color-coded Tip Sheets are ring-bound so they can be hung from hooks in emergency vehicles, duty stations, school health offices, and taken into the field.

Since 2003, over 120,000 copies of the Tip Sheets have been distributed throughout the United States and abroad.