Volunteers train to treat the injured during disasters

Medical Reserve Corps volunteers took part in the Remote Area Medical clinic held in Milton in December. "We had six MRC volunteers work this clinic and we treated this as an exercise for an Alternate Care Site. We would be tasked with setting up an ACS in the event of a mass casualty incident," MRC Volunteer Coordinator Steve Samaha said. [Special to the Press Gazette]

Editor's Note: This continues our Celebrate Community series on Santa Rosa County nonprofits that improve our quality of life. 

MILTON — The Medical Reserve Corps is a volunteer organization under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help before, during and after natural and man-made disasters.

Santa Rosa County’s MRC Unit 556, established in 2006, has three missions: helping to staff the special-needs shelter, treating non-life-threatening patients at alternative care sites in a mass casualty scenario, and helping to inoculate the population in a pandemic scenario, according to Unit 556 Volunteer Coordinator Steve Samaha.

A special-needs shelter is specifically for individuals with physical or mental conditions that the Red Cross isn’t trained to help in disaster situations.

Samaha is a licensed emergency medical technician who’s been in Santa Rosa County since 2008 and involved with the MRC roughly the last five years, he said.

“We help with community events like … inoculating pets for rabies, a department of health initiative. It’s good training if we had to (do the same) for a disaster,” Samaha said.

The MRC accepts two categories of volunteers: those who have medical training and those who don’t. Anyone from a health professional to the average person in Santa Rosa County can join the MRC Unit 556.

Volunteers could provide a variety of services from medical treatment to administering vaccines to assisting with volunteer management.

MRC volunteers in December took part in the Remote Area Medical clinic held in Milton in December.

"We had six MRC volunteers work this clinic and we treated this as an exercise for an Alternate Care Site. We would be tasked with setting up an (alternate care site) in the event of a mass casualty incident," Samaha said.

To learn how to become an MRC volunteer, contact the department of health at 983-5200 or MRC.SantaRosa@flhealth.gov.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Volunteers train to treat the injured during disasters