There is a growing and urgent need for seasoned medical and public health professionals to work with the American Red Cross (ARC) and other relief agencies in the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) is fully engaged with the ARC as the primary public health resource in organizing a sustained headquarters and field presence of Harvard personnel to assist the ARC now and for the next several months.
We are now working on the following specific initiatives with the ARC:
Wide-scale deployment of medical and public health personnel throughout the affected areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to support ARC operations in all aspects;
Development of strategic and tactical planning for public health emergency operations with national headquarters;
Assessment of ongoing medical, public health and environmental needs at the field level;
Deployment of emergency mental health personnel in support of Red Cross shelter operations at targeted shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi;
Public health communications support for Red Cross field operations;
Development of public health and environmental health protocols for disaster operations;
Liaison and provision of medical back-up to donated mobile medical clinics;
Development of field surveillance tool for health screening and triage in Red Cross shelters;
Act as public health liaison with local, state, and federal public health agencies; and
Technical and logistical support for ARC headquarters operations and for field operations startup.
The Red Cross is now asking us for volunteers to participate in a rapid public health assessment of the devastated areas. We will be deploying some personnel immediately, some over the next week, and then others over the next two months. The deployments will be through the ARC and the ARC will make final selection decisions.
We need physicians and nurses with the following attributes:
Public Health expertise or advanced training (e.g., MPH) required
Clinical training preferred
Previous field experience in a disaster or humanitarian situation preferred
Availability to deploy for a minimum of two weeks required
Must be capable of working in an extremely austere environment required
If you would like to be considered for deployment with the ARC/Harvard team, send an email attaching your resume and including the following information:
Your name
Your title (i.e., MD, RN, MPH)
Your Department and position
Your home address
Your email address
Your home, work, and mobile telephone numbers
Your pager number (if applicable)
Best way to reach you this weekend and next week (i.e. indicate "mobile telephone," "home telephone," "pager," etc)
Special expertise (medical specialty, area of focus, etc) such as epidemiology, monitoring and evaluation, etc.
Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Leaning and Michael VanRooyen
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
