Description
The Franklin County & Columbus Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a group of passionate volunteers, some with and some without medical backgrounds, interested in supporting and improving the health of their communities during a public health emergency. Our MRC is part of a nationwide initiative, and could include treatment of victims of a large-scale disaster or epidemic, administration of vaccines during a mass vaccination, distribution of drugs during a chemical or biological attack, or other health emergency situation.
All volunteers are asked to complete our MRC 101 course and chose from two levels of volunteerism. The Responder tier will complete this course and will become active only in the case of disaster. The Leadership tier of volunteers will complete several trainings, prepare for specific leadership roles in the case of disaster, and assist with MRC activities throughout the year. No times and dates have been set for these trainings, as we are still in the development stages.
In previous national disasters, such as September 11th, 2001, and hurricane Katrina, the local public health infrastructure was overwhelmed and needed help. Volunteers arriving at the incident site, without being trained, without known credentials or without being affiliated with an organization, often hurt instead of help recovery efforts despite their best intentions. Through hard lessons learned, we now know counties experiencing a disaster situation need pre-credentialed, screened and trained medical professionals. The MRC meets these needs by providing an organized, rapid response of medical volunteers in a disaster.
