Columbus Department
of Public Health

YOUR NEIGHBORS NEED YOU

Join the Medical Reserve Corps to help with disaster relief

Columbus, GA— How will you respond when disaster strikes? By joining the West Central Health District Medical Reserve Corp (WCHDMRC), you could be working alongside professionals to help those most in need.

The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a community-based unit comprising medical professionals and support personnel who team together during a health emergency, needs additional volunteers to train for disaster relief response. MRC units function as a specialized component of Citizen Corps, a national network of volunteer programs dedicated to ensuring families, homes, and communities are safe from terrorism, crime and disasters of all kinds.

In the event of a large-scale public health emergency within the 16 county health district (Chattahoochee, Clay, Crisp, Dooly, Harris, Macon, Marion, Muscogee, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor and Webster) and including Russell and Lee counties in Alabama, support will be needed to assist the existing public health infrastructure. Any person 18 years and older with a variety of skills and experiences, both medical and non-medical experience is needed.

Currently the WCHDMRC needs volunteers with a variety of skills, including: working with special needs population, bilingual and sign language abilities. Those with medical and clerical background are also needed. This is an opportunity to fulfill your desire to help others in your community, better prepare your family in the event of a disaster, man made or natural, and learn more about public health’s role in the event of a disaster.

Volunteers must be willing to respond to an emergency on short notice, both during and after normal work hours or on weekends. Volunteers should be willing to work as part of a specialized team and regularly attend training and exercises. When deployed, volunteers may be subject to working under stressful conditions. Volunteers must conduct themselves in a manner that instills the trust and confidence of the public and the emergency services community.

Being a part of the West Central Health District MRC, volunteers can expect to be assigned to duties commensurate with background, skills and expertise, to be trained in emergency management and disaster medical operations, to serve the emergency public health needs of the community, as well as, being placed, upon request, in an on-going volunteer position within their community.

For more information about the West Central Health District MRC contact MRC Coordinator Tamber Fuller or to volunteer, call (706) 321-6150.