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Region I Winter 2006 Newsletter
Proudly Serving the New England States
The MRC Patriot
Volume 2, Issue 1 - January 2006
In this issue:
Everything is Bigger in Texas
The Fourth Annual National MRC Leadership Meeting is slated for Dallas, Texas, April 18–21! This year’s MRC Leadership Conference is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet! There are 350 units and more than 60,000 volunteers across the country, so there is no reason not to expect a grand turnout of leadership personnel, advisory groups, and volunteers for this year’s event. Abstracts for presentations are being accepted until January 27, 2006.
Visit www.medicalreservecorps.gov to submit your topic(s) or for more information on the Conference. Mark your calendars now!
MRC Growth in New England
There are six new MRC units in 2005. This is an 18% increase! Welcome Massachusett’s MRCs—Amesbury, Mystic Valley, Newburyport, UMASS–Amherst, and Newton; and Connecticut’s MRC—Fairfield/Easton.
Providing Technical Assistance for all New England MRCs
The Medical Foundation of Boston (TMF) has been awarded a contract to assist New England MRCs with leadership skills, resources for unit sustainability, better communications and marketing skills, grant writing, and best practices for recruitment and retention of volunteers. TMF will work cooperatively with the Region I MRC Coordinator to successfully assist all MRC units. This opportunity has been provided through a generous contribution of the Regional Health Administrator. For more information, contact the Region I MRC Coordinator, Jennifer Frenette.
Federal Government Begins Pandemic Influenza Planning With States
On December 5, 2005, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt convened a meeting with senior state and local officials from across the nation to establish an integrated and coordinated planning process between federal, state, and local governments for a response to an influenza pandemic. As part of this planning process, Secretary Leavitt asked state officials to convene state summits on the issue, hosted by the governors of each state.
- Maine’s Summit was held in December 2005.
- Vermont’s Summit will be held January 12, 2006, in Burlington, VT.
- Rhode Island’s Summit will be held January 13, 2006, in Warwick, RI.
- Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire will follow in early February.
For more information, visit www.pandemicflu.gov.
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Local MRC Leaders Making a Big Difference on National MRC Working Groups
Following the 2005 MRC National Leadership Conference, two Region I MRC coordinators were appointed to serve on national working groups to help develop policies and procedures related to a wide range of issues affecting MRC volunteers.
Core Competencies
Kate Kelley of the Amherst, Massachusetts MRC volunteered to serve on the MRC Training and Core Competencies Working Group. She recently spent several days in Washington, DC in an intense working group situation facilitated by the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) to develop a draft set of core competencies for MRC volunteers (these will not be required for MRC volunteers, only recommended).
Two reviewers from each region—an MRC leader/coordinator, Eugenie Schwartz, Yale/New Haven MRC and an MRC “associate” (i.e., a volunteer, someone from a partnering agency, state or regional official, etc.), Capt. Mike Milner, Regional Health Administrator, have been appointed to review and evaluate the draft core competencies, and to identify any gaps.
Mass Casualty
Nancy Burns of the Upper Merrimack Valley MRC has volunteered to serve on the Mass Casualty Working Group. The purpose of this working group is to help guide the MRC Program Office's efforts to meet the "charge" from the White House Homeland Security Council that "HHS will establish systems to pre-enroll, credential, train and deploy MRC personnel who are willing to provide emergency health and medical services after a catastrophic event. HHS will determine the mechanism(s) necessary to hire MRC personnel where necessary and appropriate, and create a framework within the Public Health Service to organize, train, and equip these personnel to respond to a mass casualty event."
How Do You Get a Doctor To Join Your MRC?
Two ways are surefire!
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You get another doctor to do the inviting, or
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You show them that there are already doctors as members referring them to your online updated MRC unit profile!
As a registered MRC director and/or coordinator, you have permission to change the information for your unit on the MRC Web site—here is how:
Log on to the MRC Web site (www.medicalreservecorps.gov) using the username and password you created at registration. Once logged in, you will be given the option in the left-hand frame of the Web site to "Edit MRC Unit." Click on this tab. The next page will include the fields for your MRC unit, which you have the ability to and should maintain and keep accurate.
These fields include:
- Unit name
- Jurisdiction
- Sponsoring organization
- Point of contact's name
- Unit address
- Phone number
- E-mail address
- Web site address
- Activation plan
- Emergency 24/7 contact information
- Brief unit description
- Current activities
You may change or update your unit information as often as you like. The MRC Program Office suggests you update it quarterly. Your unit profile may be one of the first places a potential MRC volunteer goes to find information about joining your unit. If your unit profile does not contain any information or if it contains old information, the individual may lose interest in becoming a part of your unit, and you may have lost a potential volunteer. Come on! Show off your unit!
It is just as important is keeping current unit contact information. Emergencies never happen 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., so this site allows access to your unit information during emergencies, weekends, or off-peak hours when local officials or the MRC Program Office may need to contact you quickly. Please keep in mind that only the MRC Program Office staff and you are able to see the emergency contact and activation process information. This information will not be shared with other users of the MRC Web site.
After making any corrections, simply click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page. This will save your updates and post them to the MRC Web site for all to reference.
If you have any technical issues with this feature, please e-mail the Webmaster at MRCWebmaster@z-techcorp.com.
For all other questions, feel free to contact the MRC Program Office at (301) 443-4951 or e-mail MRCcontact@hhs.gov.
Thank you very much for ensuring your unit profile is current and reflects your activities and contributions to your communities!
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Congratulations are in Order
LCDR April Kidd—Awarded the public service commendation medal for exemplary performance of duty for leading the MRC demonstration project and a new position in grants management with FDA. Sadly she will be leaving the MRC on January 20, 2006.
CMDR Rob Tosatto—Awarded an OSG Achievement Award, Summer 2005.
Lt. Marna Hoard—Awarded the public health service achievement medal.
Jennifer Frenette—Elected to the National Association of EMTs (NAEMT) Board of Directors, August 2005.
MRC Budget Straight-Lined by Congress—What Does This Mean for MRC Units in New England?
MRC Units that received 3-year grants will no longer have this funding after September 30, 2006. Those “pilot” grants boosted the MRC program to where it is today—a strong, growing community-based, volunteer healthcare workforce of which we can all be proud. Now is the time to secure partnerships, look towards outside resources and community foundations, look for in-kind donations, and internal assets. The MRC Program Office is working towards some solutions to sustain this program as well.
Let your voices be heard—talk to local leaders and state and federal Congressmen about the strengths of your unit and the national program. You are the MRC program, its past, present, and future—its success is really in your hands!
Region I MRC
The MRC Mission: ”To serve citizens and communities throughout the United States by establishing local teams of volunteers to strengthen the public health infrastructure and improve emergency preparedness.”
Resources, Events, and Opportunities
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Web Conference on Public Health Preparedness for Children. January 11, 2006, Noon-1:30 p.m. CST. Sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) For more information, visit
http://www.hsrnet.net/ahrq/care4kids.
- Topics in Public Health Preparedness Workshops. January 19–20, 2006, in Costa Mesa, CA. Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. Four workshops in the Public Health Preparedness Series:
- Conducting a Hazard Risk Assessment
- Risk Communication
- Writing Incident Action Plans
- Keeping Your Workforce
For more information, visit http://www.cphd.ucla.edu/.
- 27th Annual International Disaster Management Conference. February 9–12, 2006, in Orlando, FL. Sponsored by the Emergency Medicine Learning and Resource Center. For more information, visit the conference Web site at http://www.emlrc.org/disaster2006.htm.
- 2006 Local, State and Federal Public Health Preparedness Summit. February 21–24, 2006, in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO). For more information, visit the conference Web site at http://www.naccho.org/conferences/phprep06/index.cfm.
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State Contacts for New England
Region I MRC Units
Amesbury – MA
Amherst Health Dept. – MA
Boston Public Health – MA
Brookline Dept. of Health – MA
Capitol Region MRC – CT
Church of the Nazarene – MA
City of Easthampton – MA
City of Haverhill – MA
City of Nashua – NH
Eastern Maine Healthcare – ME
Fairfield/Easton – CT
Fairview Hospital – MA
Franklin County MRC – ME
Franklin Regional Council of Govts – MA
Greater Derry Community Health – NH
Mass. Emergency Response Team – MA
Mass Task Force – Beverly MA
Middletown MRC – CT
Mystic Valley MRC – MA
Newton Dept. of Health – MA
North Country Health Consortium – NH
Rhode Island MRC – RI
Southwestern VT – VT
Upper Cape MRC – MA
Upper Merrimack Valley MRC – MA
Yale New Haven – CT
UMass Amherst – MA
Waldo County MRC – ME
Regional Coordinator Contact Information
Jennifer Frenette, B.S., NREMT-I, I/C
Home Office:
76 Portland Street
Lancaster, NH 03584
Phone: 603-788-2769
Fax: 603-788-2032
Region Office:
JFK Building, Room 2100
Boston, MA 02203
Phone: 617-565-1492
Fax: 617-565-1491
Cell: 603-631-0464 or 301-793-8736
E-mail: jennifer.frenette@hhs.gov
Web site: www.medicalreservecorps.gov
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Last Updated on 8/14/2006
