| |
| |
medical reserve corps
North Country MRC Home MRC Press Release About MRC Volunteer Application MRC Brochure
Medical Reserve Corps - Northern NH Unit
North Country Health Consortium
7 Main St., Ste 7
Whitefield, NH 03598
Volunteers being mobilized to respond to Hurricane relief efforts New Hampshire's three Medical Reserve Corps units are coordinating volunteer response throughout the state to support relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
"Right now our role includes facilitating volunteer deployment to the affected region, providing local medical support to first responders, and continuing to recruit and enlist new volunteers," says Kerran Vigroux, MRC coordinator for the Derry Unit. Currently volunteers with and without healthcare backgrounds are being sought for a variety of positions.
"We are directing information about the two missions to our volunteers as we receive it, and screening new volunteers who want to assist down south," says Nicole LaPointe, MRC coordinator for the Northern NH Unit in Littleton, NH.
One if the reasons local MRC unit coordinators are serving as liaisons for the national relief effort is to assure that volunteer deployment does not result in a shortage of healthcare workers. This could severely affect the ability of New Hampshire communities, especially in rural areas, to respond to local needs.
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) was created in 2001 to establish local teams of volunteers that were trained and ready to respond in the event of a disaster. The New Hampshire MRC units, located in Nashua, Derry, and Littleton, have been recruiting health professionals to volunteer in their own communities both in an emergency and to help meet local public health needs as they occur. MRC volunteers include active and retired physicians, nurses, EMTs, mental health workers, other allied health professions, as well as people without health care training.
Typically, MRC serves as a support to first responders in local emergencies. However, due to the magnitude of the disaster and the number of affected people, Medical Reserve Corps volunteers from around the country have stepped up to help.
Volunteers are warned to prepare for severe hardship. Limited food availability, extreme heat, housing shortages and personal safety concerns are some of the conditions that relief staff may face in the wake of the hurricane.
The Medical Reserve Corps asks that individuals do not self-deploy to the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. These are potentially unsafe environments, and spontaneous volunteers will only add to the problems. There is going to be a long-term need, and supplemental medical, public health and other volunteers will be necessary for a long time.
To find out more about Medical Reserve Corps, go to their Web site at www.medicalreservecorps.gov. For more information about volunteering in the hurricane relief effort, please contact your local Medical Reserve Corps unit:
Kerran Vigroux, Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator Derry Unit
Greater Derry Community Health Services, Inc.
(work) (603) 434-9862 kerranvigroux@ci.derry.nh.usNicole LaPointe, Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator Littleton Unit
North Country Health Consortium
(work) (603) 837-2643 X 225 nlapointe@nchcnh.orgJoe Sabato, Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator Nashua Unit
City of Nashua Health and Community Services Division
(work) 589-4507 (cell) 603-966-6021 sabatoj@ci.nashua.nh.us
 |