Q: Why is a Medical Reserve Corps needed here in Kane County?
A:
In a large scale disaster we would need hundreds if not
thousands of qualified, affiliated volunteers to help.
Q: What does affiliated and qualified mean?
A: For the attacks on September 11th,
thousands of “qualified, professional” volunteers were turned
away because they were either not affiliated or not coordinated
for the disaster response. Instead of helping, they hindered the
response.
One thing that changes in an act of terrorism is that the
disaster automatically becomes a crime scene. This means that
only persons with the authority to be there can be allowed.
We don’t know if the next large scale disaster will be a
terrorist event but by building a Corps of professionals that
have already been trained and screened, we can increase the
efficiency of our emergency response to any situation by not
having to screen and credential volunteers on top of responding
to the emergency.
Q: What is the time commitment for being a Medical
Reserve Corps volunteer?
A:
Starting April of 2008, MRC Volunteers must complete basic
training within 9 months:
MRC 101 plus Personal Preparedness – a three hour scheduled
session
CPR/AED Training – must maintain a current status, volunteers
can obtain on own or attend sessions sponsored by Kane County
First Aid Training - must maintain a current status, volunteers
can obtain on own or attend sessions sponsored by Kane County
ICS 100 – can be completed online or by attending a training
sponsored by Kane County
For those volunteers looking to increase their role in response,
more training will be required.
Volunteers are requested to participate in county drills and be
available to respond to local emergencies.
Q: What types of service projects do the volunteers perform?
A:
The volunteers can help by being peer mentors for information on
different public health initiatives such as West Nile Virus,
Emergency Preparedness, Monkey pox, SARS, and
Tuberculosis. Volunteers are needed for recruiting and planning
drills.
Q: Besides the required training, what other activities will MRC
Members participate in?
A:
Different communities are required to demonstrate preparedness
including Kane County. MRC members will be requested to act as
victims, medical responders, logistical assistants, and
transporters during these drills to better prepare all agencies
in caring for the community.
Kane MRC would like to increase the training of our volunteers
to better educate the community. Some of these include:
Decontamination procedures, Weapons of Mass Destruction,
Disaster Ethics, and Disaster Mental Health. These skills would
be extremely valuable in the event of a large scale incident for
both the safety of the volunteer and efficiency of an emergency
response. |