palatine medical reserve corps (pmrc)

Everyone can do something…….President Bush created the USA Freedom Corps to foster a culture of service, citizenship and responsibility.  He asked all Americans to make a lifetime commitment of at least two years (4,000 hours) to serving their neighbors and their nation.  The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is one way to fulfill this opportunity to help.

The Medical Reserve Corps is the component of the Citizen Corps which brings together local health professionals and others with relevant health-related skills to volunteer in their community.  These volunteers will assist the local, existing community emergency medical response system, as well as provide a group of readily-trained and available resources to help the community deal with pressing public health needs and improvement.

The MRC’s purpose is to augment medical staff shortages dealing with situations which have significant public health consequences.

All members of the community are encouraged to volunteer in a manner which is appropriate to their skills and training.

The mission of the Medical Reserve Corps is to establish teams of local volunteer medical public health professionals, and others, who can contribute their skills and expertise throughout the year as well as during times of community need.

• Medical Reserve Corps units are made of locally-based, medical and public health volunteers who can assist their communities during emergencies, such as an influenza epidemic, a chemical spill, or an act of terrorism.
• Medical Reserve Corps volunteers also offer education and prevention services to improve the public health infrastructure of their neighborhoods and communities.

MRC units are community-based and function as a specialized component of Citizen Corps, a national network of volunteers dedicated to making sure their families, home, and communities are safe from terrorism, crime, and disasters of all kinds.  Citizen Corps, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and the Peace Corps are all part of the President’s USA Freedom Corps which promotes volunteerism and service throughout the U.S.

The MRC Program Office, headquartered in the Office of the Surgeon General, functions as a clearinghouse for community information and “best practices”.  We offer technical expertise and educational resources.  Our role is to help communities achieve their local visions for community health and for emergency preparedness and response.

The Village of Palatine Medical Reserve Corps is coordinated by the Village of Palatine Emergency Management Agency and the Palatine Citizen Corp Council.

Who can volunteer for the Medical Reserve Corps?

• Practicing, retired, or otherwise-employed health professionals, such as doctors, dentists, nurses, emergency medical technicians, pharmacists, nurses’ assistants, and others.
• Public health processionals.  Even community members without medical training are encouraged to volunteer to assist with administrative and other essential support functions.
• United States citizenship is not required to be part of the Medical Reserve Corps.  Non-citizen, legal U.S. residents are also welcome to volunteer and contribute their time, knowledge, and skills to protecting and improving their communities.

What do MRC volunteers do?

It varies, depending on the nature of the emergency and the ongoing need for community health outreach and education.

What we do know is that major emergencies can overwhelm the capabilities of our first responders, especially during the first 12 to 72 hours.  Medical and other health volunteers can provide an important “surge” capacity during that critical period.  They can also augment medical staff shortages at local medical and emergency facilities.  In short, communities often need medically-trained individuals to fill in the gaps in their emergency response plans and to improve their response capabilities overall.

What training will I need?

Emergency preparedness and response is a highly-coordinated effort which allows communities to maximize their capabilities during times of extraordinary disorganization and stress.

In most cases, your training as an MRC volunteer will focus primarily on learning your local emergency and health procedures, trauma response techniques, use of specialized equipment, and other methods to enhance your effectiveness as a volunteer. We require volunteers to take free Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training and we offer CPR/AED, first aid, and basic Incident Command System training. Training exercises, in conjunction with the Palatine Fire Department, are also being planned.

Perhaps the most important part of your training will be learning to work as part of a team.  An organized, well-trained MRC unit will be familiar with its community’s response plan, will know what materials are available for use, will know its response partners, and will know where it’s skills can be put to best use and in a coordinated manner.

FAQs about the Medical Reserve Corps

Q.        Why is a Medical Reserve Corps needed here in the Village of Palatine?

A.        In a large-scale disaster, we would need large numbers of qualified, affiliated volunteers to help.

Q.        What does affiliated and qualified mean?

A.        For the attacks on September 11^th, 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 who 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.        Volunteers are asked to participate in our “All Member” Sessions (usually offered about once per quarter), whenever possible. These provide learning opportunities. Also, we are asking that volunteers participate in drills when available.  Opportunities to volunteer in non-medical situations are also offered and encouraged.        

Q.        What types of service projects do the volunteers perform?

A.        The volunteers can help by being peer mentors for information on different health initiatives such as West Nile Virus, emergency preparedness, Monkey pox, SARS, and tuberculosis.  This could even involve giving talks to public groups such as neighborhood associations, garden clubs, service clubs, scouts, school groups, etc.

Q.        Why do they need to have continuing education and service time?

A.        The type of continuing education we are asking the volunteers to take is specific to emergency management topics. Some of these include:  Incident Command System, CPR/AED, 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 the emergency response.

Service time helps to keep an active team that is knowledgeable and prepared.