New Online Courses Available:

Psychological First Aid: Building Resiliency for "Us" and "Them"
 

The importance of Psychological First Aid for victims of a disaster as well as first responders has been well established. From the attacks of 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, the mental impact of a disaster often has far reaching and lasting effects. While more attention is being paid to the psychological needs of victims and first responders, the fact remains that often times during an actual crisis, those needs are not addressed or are not emphasized based on the surrounding physical and environmental needs. Promoting an environment of safety, calm, connectedness, self-efficacy, empowerment and hope is the main goal of providing Psychological First Aid. That’s why basic training in the foundations of Psychological First Aid is critical for anyone who may be called to respond in a disaster situation. This program will help you to better recognize and manage the basic symptoms of psychological distress and give you the tools you need to apply basic Psychological First Aid to children, the elderly, and others in general.

Productive Communication Skills
 

This course is designed to provide you with the communication skills you will need to help you take the next step up in your organization.  After taking this course, you will be able to reach a positive outcome with those you supervise by understanding personal communication style differences, using turn-taking effectively, noticing facial expressions which may signal emotions, and maintaining an appropriate body posture when communicating.  You will learn the preferred pace of the different styles, and how styles shift under stress.  You will learn how to increase your productivity by identifying high payoff activities, handling conflicting priorities, and using your most productive time of day to your advantage.  You will learn how to deal with difficult people by improving your listening skills and becoming a more persuasive person.

Cross-Border Collaboration
 

The challenges of disaster and emergency planning and the coordination of response increase significantly when the event spans state lines, borders of sovereign Tribal nations, and international borders.  Challenges associated with cross border response range from technical issues such as the compatibility of communications systems to legal issues such as authority and power of responders to the managerial issues of planning, organizing, and controlling the response.  In order to deal with these challenges multi-jurisdictional agreements in the forms of Memorandums of Understanding and Mutual Aid Agreements are often created.  While such agreements are essential to developing the details of collaboration, testing the effectiveness in terms of both substance and form through drills and exercises is necessary and offers additional benefits of strengthening relationships and building confidence among cross-border response organizations.  NOTE:  This course was originally presented as a satellite broadcast.

Special Needs Populations in Disaster Response

This course will discuss the basic principles which should underlie disaster consequence management, planning and appropriate actions within the action phases of disaster response.  It will focus on the saving of life and mitigation of injury for victims with special needs and vulnerabilities.  The discussion will examine how culture and religion are population characteristics which may be usefully considered in the context of special needs when designing and executing consequence management activities during a crisis.

The discussion will assist in identifying vulnerable populations in a community at risk and assess significant requirements and challenges inherent in their time-phased emergency support.  It will examine the tools required for lifesaving as well as those needed for broader consequence management which can be confidently employed.  It will also discuss the most effective manners of use for these tools.

Upcoming Satellite Broadcast:

Responding to Victims with Burn Injuries in Disaster Events
Tuesday, July 21, 2009

12:00 - 1:30 p.m. (Central Time)
 

According to United States Fire Administration 2007 data, fire killed more Americans than all natural disasters combined. Approximately 10,000 people in the United States die every year because of infections that complicate burns. In an effort to contribute to improved response and overall outcomes for victims of fires, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Tulane’s South Central Center for Public Health Preparedness is partnering with the Alabama Department of Public Health to host a live satellite broadcast on burn evaluation and care for emergency responders. This satellite will feature Dr. Ziad Kazzi of Emory University’s Department of Emergency Medicine and Dr. James Cross of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Burn Center.  

While burn injuries are common in the United States, specialized burn centers often lack the capability to care for large numbers of burn victims. For this reason, improved initial evaluation, triage and management of burn injuries can significantly impact victim outcomes. These tasks are most commonly performed by emergency responders and first receivers (paramedics, nurses and physicians). This broadcast will raise the overall burn care expertise among participants and prepare these individuals to respond to public health threats and burn-related emergencies.

Upcoming Workshop:

Burn Evaluation and Care for Emergency Responders Course
Birmingham, AL - Friday, June 26, 2009

*For registration and a full list of dates and locations please click here

This 8 hour course is intended for first responders and receivers including firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and nurses who would be the first to treat burn victims.  The Burn Evaluation and Care for Emergency Responders Course, adapted from the American Burn Association materials and trainings, introduces information relevant to the care of casualties from burn injuries.

For more information please contact Michael Poole at the UAB School of Public Health (Phone: (205) 934-7735; Email: mepoole@uab.edu)

Other Training Opportunities:

Preparedness Minute Videos

Preparedness Minutes are video clips describing actions to take in emergency situations, whether they are at work or at home.  Some of the videos will be reminders, others will present new information.  Ultimately these videos will help you be prepared for an emergency or disaster.  Please visit the link below to watch any of our preparedness minute videos.

Watch Videos

New Preparedness Minute Videos

by Dr. Joshua Klapow, Associate Professor, Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• How To Administer Psychological First Aid

• Preparing Your Pets For A Disaster

• How To Reduce Stress In Children Following A Disaster

Watch The New Videos

Disaster Management Program

A new program in Disaster Management is being offered by Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Department of Environmental Health Sciences.  This program is offered both on campus and by distance learning through the Center for Applied Environmental Public Health (CAEPH).  Students may obtain either a graduate certificate or the full MPH in disaster management.  The Tulane CAEPH distance learning programs are geared to mid career professionals.  CAEPH uses state-of-the-art synchronous distance learning technologies to enhance learning and networking.  For more information, contact Albert Terrillion at DLinfo@tulane.edu or at 1-800-862-2122.

Other Online Courses Avilable:

Continuity of Operations Planning

The purpose of this course is to understand the management issues in disaster and its outcomes through examining the crisis cycle involved in risk audit, mitigation, preparedness planning, impact of the crisis event, response and recovery.  Exercises and discussion will be incorporated as part of the discussion of each of the crisis phases.

Mass Casualty Medical Command

This course is intended for pre-hospital care providers who may be called on to respond to a mass casualty incident when large numbers of victims are injured or exposed to a natural or man made disaster, including the intentional attack on people using a CBRNE agent.  The Incident Command System (ICS) including the use of unified command function will be followed to better prepare trainees how to respond with maximum effectiveness and establish medical command at a mass casualty event involving a single command structure or multi-agency/multi-jurisdictional response.

Quick Links:

Register Now!
South Central Public Health Partnership
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health

Participants have 7 weeks to complete each course. A certificate of completion is awarded to those who score 70% or better on the knowledge-based assessment.

All courses are FREE. Sponsored by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This email was sent to you because you have participated in a training offered by the South Central Public Health Partnership. These projects are supported under a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant number U90/CCU624254-02, and the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources Administration (HRSA) grant number D20HP00012-07. The contents of this program are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.