October 2006

Disaster volunteers gain federal recognition;
more needed

The 2006 hurricane season has been quiet, but the chiropractic profession is getting prepared to face another Hurricane Katrina or any other natural or manmade disaster, thanks to CERV — the Chiropractic Emergency Response Volunteers.

Since its inception last year, CERV has come a long way, said Rebecca Burton, DC, president of CERV and founder of OneHealth, a Dallas-area clinic. Its milestones include:

• High-powered board of directors. CERV, a 503(c) corporation, has a board of directors with name recognition. In addition to Burton, the board consists of CEO Chris Russell, president of Zonsite; Director of CERV Operations Richard W. Fredrick; and board members Jose Cabrera of IBM; Raymond L. Fowler, MD, section chief for Southwestern Area of Homeland Security; Ray Strand, MD; and Rick Wren, DC.

• Recognition by Homeland Security. “CERV is officially part of the Dallas County Disaster Management Operations Center (DMOC) and an official part of the Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) as a stand-alone unit,” Russell told Chiropractic Economics. This means that CERV will now be part of all trainings and deployments.

“Having them [MRC] accept us as a team with our own leadership structure was really a big thing,” said Russell. “We are in meetings at least once a month with people from logistics, planning, operations, and finance. We are in those meetings, talking about resources they need and we need.”

• Credentialing by the Medical Response Corp (MRC). CERV is now a subset — a self-contained unit — of MRC. Volunteers who complete an eight-hour orientation program received CERV credentials endorsed by MRC. The credentials facilitate volunteering.

• Its first orientation session. On September 17, CERV conducted its first orientation session for members. Another session is scheduled for April 15. Russell said the program has been approved for CEs through Texas Chiropractic College (TCC). It will be offered through TCC, as well as Palmer College of Chiropractic. CERV leadership is talking with Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (part of Southern California University of Health Sciences) about offering the training.

Burton commented that CERV leadership presented the orientation program to Ray Fowler, MD, area section chief for Homeland Security. “He was really impressed,” she said. The medical community currently does not have this type of orientation program.

Russell said the goal is to have the training offered through all of the chiropractic colleges.

READY FOR EXPANSION

The program is ready to be extended throughout the country, explained Burton, who helped found the program, with the help of Zonsite, following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. A rapid expansion of the program requires more CERV membership (individuals who are willing to volunteer) and funding for marketing, she said.

Russell said, “We are now gaining credibility … Members of Congress are starting to pay attention.” He said that Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) is working with CERV on cross-jurisdictional licensing for disasters.

Both Russell and Burton encourage all doctors of chiropractic — regardless of where they live — to join CERV and become credentials. “We have to show MRC that we have coverage [of disasters],” said Russell.

For more information, go to www.ihelpcerv.org.

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