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Corporate Edge Org (CEO) Small Business Consultants in Boston HOME | Contact | About us | Special Projects | Business Writing | Food Writing SHOP TALK Business Class by Kitty Kaufman Interview Dawn Carmen Sibor is the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the Department of Public Health. We spent an afternoon talking about one of her responsibilities, the Brookline Medical Reserve Corps. MRC, part of a federal program, serves in times of emergency and assists with local public health needs throughout the year. Brookline's MRC, one of the first in the state, has been educating emergency preparedness teams since 2005. Volunteers enroll for many reasons: to give back to the community but mostly to be proactive as a team in a national or local crisis. And as a volunteer in training scenarios, you think the more you know the better you feel. This is not always the case. There are scenarios Sibor has thought up that you never would. "I get paid to imagine more," she says. What is the Brookline Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)? It's a group of volunteers with many areas of expertise who want to help during large-scale public health emergencies like having to dispense medication to a large group in a short amount of time. MRC also assists with flu clinics and the marathon. How did you start to round up volunteers? We recruited nurses first. Then we looked for physicians and behavioral health professionals. We have 130 active members about half of whom are medical. Some non-medical members come from the police program CERT or they hear about it from a friend. Is there a selection process? If you're a professional, we check your licensing. Brookline also does CORI checks on all volunteers. What training do you provide? Some of the recent ones are avian flu, State of Mass Animal Response Team (SMART), setting up emergency dispensing sites, incident command, CPR, first aid, and recently we toured the Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) headquarters in Framingham. We're offering Influenza Specialty Care Units (ISCU) training November 28 and in December an interactive training on working with children. How did you develop the education plan? When we started we were one of just 12 MRC units in the state. We got together informally because no curriculum came with the federal dollars. Guidelines have since been developed. Alan Balsam, Brookline's director of public health, initially applied for a three-year grant in 2003. Does that mean we're out of money? No. The three-year grant ended last September. Because there are so many MRC programs now, the federal government is now funding fewer dollars through a variety of channels. What's your background? I have a degree in teaching and a master's in guidance counseling. I've had a lot of experience designing and developing new public health programs. How do you make sure your volunteers are ready? In group practice sessions we try to simulate what it's really like or could be like. No matter how many times we practice, though, it won't be perfect. We're just going to do the best we can. When do you activate? Our non-emergencies are for things like public health week or flu clinics and events like the Marathon. Emergency activations might be dispensing sites for infectious diseases. When you open a site, how does it work? Volunteers come in early and we have a just-in-time training. We've already had activations for flu and pneumonia clinics. So how ready are we? I think we're well prepared. Is there always something to do? Absolutely. That's part of planning for the unknown. We hope our emergency trainings are useful in other situations like bad winter storms or a hurricane. If we have to open a shelter to do hepatitis A immunizations for 1,000 people, for example, we could use the MRC. Brookline takes emergency preparedness very seriously. We have great people working well together: fire, police, EMS, the department of public works, building, IT, schools, and public health. We meet often, sometimes at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). We coordinate with CERT, the Community Emergency Response Team. Their 60 members are trained by the police to open shelters. We're also working to help residents get set at home for emergencies. Are you still looking for volunteers? We've been recruiting dentists, veterinarians, and physical therapists. However, we need lots of non-medical people too. One of my colleagues made an apt comparison: "In a doctor's office you have only one physician but behind them there's a big support staff." As a volunteer you can do as much or as little as you want. There are people I see at every training session and others I see once in a while. There are people whom I never see who say, "In an emergency you can count on me." The commitment is what you want to make it. The MRC is only as great as its volunteers and we do need more. What's the best thing that could happen? We plan, we train, we educate, we're always ready and we never have an emergency that needs the MRC. What's the best part of your job? I work with great professionals here in town. The volunteers are great, the skills that people bring, and the support from all the town departments are terrific. You serve healthy food at the meetings. Not surprising since this is the department of public health. When volunteers come I like to show them they are appreciated. They're coming from work and they're tired. Where do we sign up? You can read more about the program at www.brooklinemrc.org © November 2007 for Our Town 40 St. Paul St | Brookline MA 02446 | 617. 388. 0062 Kitty Kaufman kkaufman@corp-edge.com |