We added the following to our MRC ranks in recent months:

David Wietig, dentist; Ray Honaker, EMT; Greg Bennett, medical researcher; Debra Chadwick, RN; Joe Kenney, Region VI Behavioral Health; Randy Nordstrom, dentist; Rubie Carroll, medical assistant; Narayan Nagami, dentist; Connie Ricchini, RN; Donna Eckman, dental hygienist; Patti Motl, RN; Tom Reimers, behavioral health specialist; Mike Chong, paramedic; Lera Johnson, behavior analyst; Candice Miramontes-Laney, behavioral health specialist; Linda Brown, paramedic; Virginia Weston, RN and behavioral health specialist; Jan Frederick, medical assistant; Sherri Roelle, dental hygienist; Clayton Gullick, EMT; Marie Sempek, RN; Charles James, dentist; Diane Heller, RN; and Peggy Leubbert, infection preventionist. Welcome to all of you. It is great to have you join us!

If you know of anyone who is interested in joining the MRC, please have them contact Tom at (402) 522-7970 or tmcmahon@uwmidlands.org.

H1N1 VACCINATION EFFORTS

As you know, our efforts this fall and early winter have been directed to helping with H1N1 vaccination clinics.

As of Dec. 31, one-hundred and nine MRC volunteers provided 943 hours of service to 26 clinics in Douglas, Sarpy/Cass, Saunders and Washington counties. Over 40,000 people received vaccinations.

MRC volunteers gave vaccinations, screened people, filled syringes, provided behavioral health crowd control, assisted with paperwork, and kept vaccination stations supplied with needed materials.

We also offered to assist in our other counties – Dodge, Harrison and Pottawattamie.

Thanks to all of you who helped make this effort a huge success. Watch your email for upcoming clinics. If you do not get our emails, call and let Tom know if you would like to be on the email list or if you would like to help with a clinic.

TRAINING

Volunteers attended several training opportunities this past quarter.

Offerings included NIMS 100, a required course that discusses the command structure in a disaster; Basic Disaster Life Support, our quarterly optional training conducted by the Center for Biopreparedness Education that reviews a number of potential disasters, decontamination training and a companion class on how to use a supplied air respirator.

Watch your email for upcoming training opportunities. We will be offering NIMS 100 and 700 for those of you who prefer to take it in a classroom setting rather than online. We will also offer two other required courses, Psychological First Aid and CPR/First Aid.

And our quarterly optional training in February will be a program on "Communicating with the Hearing Impaired in a Disaster."

DECONTAMINATION TEAM ADDS MEMBERS

We added 9 new members to the MRC Decontamination Team. Mike Chong, Geri Thomas, Rubie Carroll, Dallas Vogt, Greg Bennett, Joel Rudloff and Bob Thomas completed training in November. Linda Brown and Bonnie Riley have also had decon training. This brings the total team to 29. The decontamination team will play a critical role in the event of a chemical disaster. Thanks for your service!

CELEBRATE MRC!

Several MRC members and their guests attended a November 20 Thank You Celebration at Offutt Air Force Base’s Patriot Club. Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy thanked the volunteers for their service, noting that Nebraska had one of the highest H1N1 vaccination rates in the country. Dan Kingcaide, a management consultant with The Gallup Organization gave an informative and humorous talk on teamwork.

Year-end figures show 146 MRC volunteers provided 2,101 hours of service to the area. You are a community treasure!

MEMBER NEWS

Several MRC volunteers recently took advantage of federal training opportunities afforded to MRC volunteers.

• Linda Casey attended Hazardous Materials and Response training in Emmitsburg, MD, conducted by FEMA. As a paramedic, Linda will use the training to hone skills she would use in a contamination situation, helping to identify the product and treating and decontaminating those exposed. Linda is also a MRC Decontamination Team member.

• Chandra Petersen, Margo Franz and Cynthia Gross attended Public Health Service training at Fort AP Hill, VA. The MRC is under the Office of the Surgeon General, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Volunteers received training on the Public Health Service’s mission and roles and their possible involvement in an emergency support function in a public health emergency. Three hundred public health officers and 25 MRC volunteers took part in the training, designed to enhance team cohesion, build resiliency, improve operational readiness and foster cross-cultural expertise. The training took on a real health emergency when several of the participants, including Margo, became ill with the flu.

• Linda Brown, Bonnie Dollen, Jamie Micek, Christy Saufley , Ruth Vacha, and Sandi Vyhlidal have been selected to participate in the 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit in Atlanta in February. The summit is designed to strengthen and enhance the capabilities of public health professionals and other participants to plan and prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and other public health emergencies.

• MRC volunteer Robin Zagurski received the Lieutenant Governor’s 2009 Excellence in Risk Communications award. A social worker with the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry, Robin has contributed her time and expertise to help educate professionals and volunteers on the psychological aspects of disasters since 1996. She is a member of both the behavioral health team for the United Way of the Midlands Medical Reserve Corps, the American Red Cross Disaster Response Team, and a charter member of the Nebraska Behavioral Health Emergency Response Team. She has provided mental health services following house fires and Omaha’s 2007 mall shooting, the Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp tornado, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

• And the Sarpy County Citizen Corps, of which our MRC is a member, was named Outstanding Citizen Corps Council in the state.  The council provided 150 Sarpy County residents with disaster preparedness training in 2009 and reached out to schools and faith-based organizations to provide Disaster 101 classes and other presentations. The council operates Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) program. To observe National Preparedness Month, council members organized a disaster preparedness fair in Bellevue to provide information and resources on personal preparedness.

KEEP US POSTED !

Please notify our office if you move or change phone numbers or email addresses so we can keep our data base current. It is important that we have up-to-date information in the event of a disaster. Call Tom at (402) 522-7970 or email him at tmcmahon@uwmidlands.org .

NEW EQUIPMENT

The MRC recently purchased equipment and supplies to enhance our response capability. Among the items were a generator, lights and PA system for the decontamination unit; additional uniform shirts; first aid and resiliency banners to be used when the MRC is participating in community events, such as health fairs; and voice broadcasting phone software to allow efficiency in sending multiple messages at once. This will be especially helpful in communicating with those of you without e-mail access in the event of a disaster.

CERT CLASSES AVAILABLE

CERT is a training program that prepares you to help your family, and your neighborhood in the event of a disaster. During an incident, emergency personnel may not be able to reach everyone right away. By getting trained in CERT, you will have the skills to help emergency responders save lives and protect property. If you are interested in taking this training, go to www.easternnebraskacert.com . In Sarpy County, contact Curtis Rainge at crainge@sarpy.com for more information and upcoming training classes.

DISPOSING OF MEDICATIONS

Just about all of us have expired or unwanted medications sitting in medicine cabinets or locked drawers. What exactly are we supposed to do with these outdate drugs?

Flushing these drugs down the toilet is not a solution since studies show this can present environmental problems and certain medications have been found in our water supplies. Generally speaking, your pharmacy, doctor, local hospital and recycling facility are no longer accepting expired or unwanted medications.

"Based on public health concerns and negative impacts to water quality, a coalition of local, state and nonprofit organizations have joined together to spread the message that we should now throw medications away in the trash instead of flushing them down the toilet," explains Marcia Mueting, PharmD, RP, with the Nebraska Pharmacists Association.

The Nebraska Medication Education on Disposable Strategies partnership recommends the following to properly dispose of medications:

• Take unwanted medications out of their original container and place in a sealable bag.

• Crush medications, or add enough water to dissolve them, then mix with soil, coffee grounds or cat litter.

• Place sealed bag in trash, preferably the day of pickup.

For additional information, visit the Nebraska MEDS website, www.nebraskameds.org or contact the Nebraska Regional Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222.