Purpose
To ensure that disabled people and their caregivers are not left alone during disasters, crises, or emergencies by building relationships of solidarity and support in advance, helping care continue when regular systems are disrupted.
What need does it address?
- Maintaining care during disasters and emergencies
- Enabling disabled people to access essential needs quickly
- Preventing caregivers from becoming isolated or overwhelmed
- Building trust-based mutual support networks within neighborhoods and communities
- Encouraging preparedness before a crisis occurs
How can it be practiced?
1. Build a care network.
In your neighborhood, apartment building, or local community, you can create a voluntary support network together with disabled people and caregivers.
It can be helpful to discuss in advance who may be able to provide support in different situations.
2. Identify needs together.
Every person’s needs are different.
For example:
- Mobility support
- Communication support
- Medication or medical supplies
- Electrically powered medical devices
- Accompaniment
- Transportation
- Daily care routines
These needs can be discussed and documented before a crisis occurs.
3. Prepare emergency information.
Basic information that may be needed during an emergency can be prepared in advance.
For example:
- Emergency contacts
- Medications being used
- Medical devices and equipment
- Communication preferences
- Accessible evacuation requirements
- Backup key or transportation arrangements
This information should only be shared with the person’s consent and within trusted relationships.
4. Share responsibilities during a crisis.
To prevent the care burden from falling on a single person, tasks can be distributed across the network.
For example:
- Obtaining medication
- Meal support
- Finding chargers, batteries, or backup power sources
- Pet care
- Transportation to a hospital or safe location
- Short-term accompaniment and support
5. Stay connected after the crisis.
Care needs do not necessarily end when the immediate emergency is over.
Maintaining communication and reassessing needs during recovery is equally important.
Things to consider
- No plan should override the decisions and autonomy of disabled people.
- Support should always be voluntary.
- Personal information should only be shared with explicit consent.
- Accessibility and communication needs vary from person to person; planning should be individualized rather than based on standard solutions.
- The goal is not to replace professional emergency or healthcare services, but to strengthen solidarity and support until those services become available.
The Ihtimam Perspective
Ihtimam Rituals offer practical ways to strengthen care relationships in everyday life. However, lasting solutions to the invisibilization of care require changes not only in daily practices, but also in organizations, policies, and systems.
Disasters and crises often deepen existing inequalities. Disabled people and caregivers can be disproportionately affected by these situations. Preparing for crises therefore requires not only physical preparedness, but also relational preparedness—the cultivation of care networks and trusted relationships before they are needed.
For more structural approaches, explore the Care Policy Recommendations Tool:
Shared by
This ritual was shared by one of İhtimam’s Co-Nurturers.
Ihtimam Rituals is a living collection of care practices developed by individuals, communities, and organizations in their everyday lives. You can contribute to this collective archive by sharing a ritual that strengthens care relationships in your own daily life.