Emergency preparedness when you live alone

How to use this guide

This guide is intended for anyone who lives alone, or does not have someone available who can reach them quickly. It also applies to people who are normally independent, because an emergency may disrupt transportation, communication, medication supply, and the ability to reach a protected space or essential service.

Five questions to ask first

• Who knows that I am alone and will check on me during an emergency?
• Can I reach the protected space and leave home without assistance?
• Do I have medications, water, food, lighting, and a charger available?
• Who has a key or knows how to enter if I do not answer?
• At what point should I contact the local authority, welfare services, health fund, or emergency services?

1. Build a personal contact network

• Choose at least two contacts who are not dependent on one another—for example, a nearby neighbor and a person outside the area. If you do not have two available contacts, contact the local social-services department or local-authority hotline during routine times and ask what community support or check-in mechanism can be arranged. Do not wait until the emergency starts to build your support network.
• Decide in advance when contact should be made: after an alert, at the start of a power outage, morning and evening, or according to your personal situation.
• Agree on a short, clear message: “I am home and okay,” “I need help,” or “I am leaving for the destination we agreed on.”
• Keep phone numbers on a printed sheet, not only on your mobile phone.
• Share personal information only with consent and only as needed: address, medical need, entry code, or key location.
• Decide what happens if there is no answer: another attempt, contacting a neighbor, the local-authority hotline, or emergency services according to the level of risk.

Important: A welfare check is not intrusive surveillance. Coordinate it in advance, respect privacy, and make clear who is allowed to receive information or enter the home.

2. Prepare the home

• Keep phone, charger, lighting, water, medications, and glasses in an accessible place near the protected space.

• Remove obstacles from the route to the protected space, door, and exit.

• Keep a small emergency bag that you can carry on your own.

• Prepare a short emergency card in an agreed, accessible place and in the go-bag. Include name, contact person, health-fund details, communication method, medications, allergies, and essential medical information. Do not leave detailed medical information visible. Share it only when needed and with a relevant caregiver or professional.

• Check whether the door, gate, or elevator depends on electricity and what the safe alternative is.

• Keep a spare key with an agreed person or in a secure method if appropriate.

3. At the start of an event

• Follow Home Front Command instructions and enter the available protected space when required.

• Send a short message to your contact after the immediate danger has passed.

• Check electricity, water, medications, and your ability to leave the home.

• Do not go outside merely to see what is happening.

• If you fell, were injured, or cannot reach protection, ask for help immediately rather than waiting for the next planned check-in.

• Keep your phone available and do not waste battery on continuous news viewing.

3. Maintain regular contact

During an emergency, it is important to know how to rely on others when necessary. A regular check-in system should use short, predictable, practical messages. Its purpose is to identify a decline in function before the situation worsens. Choose one remote contact and one nearby contact, such as a neighbor, who can reach you even when communications are disrupted. Make sure the contacts know about each other and have each other's details.

Possible subjects for regular check-ins include:

4. When phone or cellular communication is unavailable

This applies both to your ability to contact others and their ability to reach you. Agree in advance on alternatives:

• Try a short text message instead of repeated calls.
• Where emergency channels are used, listen to the radio or agreed local channel.
• Use the agreed contact point without traveling through a dangerous route.
• If neighbors agree, use a simple pre-arranged signal such as a knock on the door or a note.
• Agree that if contacts cannot reach you they will follow a pre-arranged escalation: try again, contact the second person who may check physically, then contact the local-authority hotline or Ministry of Welfare hotline 118 for social assistance. Hotline 118 can also be reached by text at 050-2270118. In immediate danger, contact Police 100, Magen David Adom 101, or Fire and Rescue 102.

5. Medications, treatment, and equipment

Do not change a medical treatment plan during an emergency. You should:

• Keep supplies in accordance with the doctor, health fund, and relevant authority.
• Do not change doses or skip treatment in order to “save” medications.
• Check in advance whether prescriptions or equipment can be delivered if you cannot leave, or identify someone who can bring them when needed.
• For refrigerated medications or electricity-dependent equipment, prepare a personal plan with the health fund or supplier.
• If recurring treatment is approaching and transportation is disrupted or the clinic is not operating normally, make contact early rather than on the treatment day.
• For an urgent medical condition, contact 101; a social-services hotline is not a substitute for medical care.

6. Evacuation or temporary relocation

• Leave according to official instructions or when the home can no longer support basic needs and safe living.
• Take documents, medications, water, phone, charger, keys, and essential personal equipment.
• Tell your contacts and local-authority hotline where you have gone when possible.
• Ask for a destination that is accessible and suitable for medical or functional needs.
• Do not wait until medications, water, or an essential equipment battery runs out.
• Do not return home until you are told that it is permitted and safe.

7. Emotional coping and loneliness

Emotional distress and loneliness are real risks during a prolonged emergency, as was demonstrated, for example, during the COVID-19 crisis. Helpful actions include:

• Set a basic routine for sleep, meals, medications, movement, and contact times.
• Limit continuous news viewing and prefer updates at fixed times.
• Keep brief contact with your contacts and others even when there is no practical need.
• Use familiar calming activities such as music, reading, cooking, or breathing exercises.
• If loneliness or anxiety continues or worsens, seek support—for example from a family doctor, health fund, resilience center, or support line.
• In extreme distress, risk of self-harm, or inability to keep yourself safe, seek urgent help immediately.

8. Other circumstances in which to ask for help

• No one is checking on you and you are having difficulty managing alone.
• There is no safe way to reach the protected space.
• You fell, were injured, or cannot get up.
• Medications, water, or essential food are about to run out.
• Medical equipment, elevator, or another essential system has stopped working.
• You cannot understand the instructions or receive information.
• You feel confused, extremely anxious, persistently sleep-deprived, or have a major decline in functioning.
• You feel threatened at home or are afraid of another person.

Reminder: what not to do

• Do not hide a need because you are afraid of “bothering” a hotline or neighbor.
• Do not give a key, code, or medical information to someone who was not chosen in advance.
• Do not travel on an unsafe route merely to avoid being alone.
• Do not use an elevator during a power outage or when instructed not to.
• Do not change medical treatment or improvise equipment connections.
• Do not rely on only one person as your support network.
• Do not post online that your home is empty or that you are evacuating.

9. Short action sheet

Print the action sheet or save as PDF

Privacy: the action sheet may include phone numbers, medical information, address, or home-entry details. Keep it protected and share only with people who need the information and with your consent.

This guide is an independent publication of Prepared Home and is not produced, approved, or operated by Home Front Command or any government body.

Main sources

Home Front Command. Preparing a family emergency plan.

Home Front Command. Older populations during emergencies.

Ministry of Health. Emergency preparedness — older adults.

Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. Information for older adults and family caregivers during a national emergency.

Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. Hotline 118.

Ministry of Health. Psychological first-aid support lines.

Ministry of Health. Coping with loneliness.