In the event of a bioterrorist
attack or natural disaster, the Health Department will need a large number of
volunteers to help support our efforts to restore the community to normalcy.
Regardless of your background, residents of Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton
counties are greatly needed to volunteer their time and skills in the event of a
disaster or other public health emergency.
Learn more about preparing for
disasters
A nationwide initiative of the
federal government known as the
Medical
Reserve Corps recruits medical professionals, including physicians, nurses,
paramedics and mental health professionals, as well as citizens with non-medical
backgrounds, to volunteer in their community during emergency situations that
require a widespread medical or public health response.
The Northern Kentucky Medical Reserve Corps was recently featured
in an advertising campaign on
Insight
Cable.
Watch the ad to find out about the program (Note:
Windows Media Player is required to view this video, and the file size is
large, so it may take a few minutes to download the file).
To learn more about the role of the Northern
Kentucky Medical Reserve Corps and the volunteer role you may be able to perform
in the event of a public health emergency, the following orientation session
will be held in the lower level conference room of the Health Department's
District Office at 610 Medical Village Drive,
Edgewood, Ky.:
Orientation
·
9 to 11 a.m. on
Saturday, January 10, 2009, (Light
breakfast provided)
Please RSVP to
jean.caudill@ky.gov if you are able to attend.
Volunteering is a rewarding
experience that offers a sense of purpose, a benefit to the community and an
opportunity to meet new people. As a volunteer, you will be able to work
directly with public health, emergency management and other agencies to help
meet the needs of the community in a disaster or emergency event.
To assist
local health departments to organize their volunteer efforts, the Kentucky Department
for Public Health has created
K HELPS,
the Kentucky Health Emergency Listing of Professionals for Surge program. K
HELPS is a state-based system to register individuals interested in
volunteering during public health emergencies or disasters. The K HELPS system
also allows the ability to contact volunteers by e-mail, telephone or both in
the event they are needed to respond to an emergency.
Volunteers
will register with K HELPS online and will automatically be assigned to the
Northern Kentucky MRC
unit or that unit associated with the volunteer’s geographical area. You will be asked to
create your own user account. All information provided will be kept
confidential. Volunteer information will only be available to the volunteer and
the approving organization. The Northern Kentucky MRC unit will verify the
credentials of the volunteer (if applicable), complete the approval process and
then provide orientation, training and provide volunteers with informational
updates on a regular basis.
Please take the first step and
volunteer today by going to:
https://khelps.chfs.ky.gov/VolunteerMobilizer/
For more
information, please contact Jean Caudill at 859.363.2009 or by e-mail to
jean.caudill@ky.gov.
