“Out of Many,One"
“Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes"
“Out of Many,One"
“Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes"
Are you passionate about strengthening mental health awareness, resilience, and education among first responders, support personnel, their families, and the communities they protect?
The United States Fire Department Reserve Corps (USFDRC) welcomes qualified, licensed mental health professionals to serve as Mental Health Volunteer Reservist Members within our Mental Health Services Command (MHSC).
Volunteer Reservist Members may contribute their knowledge and experience through educational, preventive, supportive, and disaster-related activities. All services must remain within the volunteer’s professional qualifications, training, active license, and legally authorized scope of practice.
Volunteer Reservist Members may assist with:
Within their authorized roles, Volunteer Reservist Members may provide:
Members who have the appropriate credentials, disaster-response training, assignment, and jurisdictional authorization may support:
All disaster assignments must be performed within the established incident command structure and under the direction of the USFDRC or the agency having joint command
jurisdiction.
Volunteer status does not expand, replace, or override a professional license. Each Volunteer Reservist Member is personally responsible for understanding and complying with the laws, regulations, ethical standards, supervision requirements, and licensing restrictions applicable to the location and method through which services are provided.
Unless specifically authorized by law, the applicable licensing authority, and the USFDRC, volunteers shall not:
When a person presents an immediate danger to themselves or others, experiences a medical emergency, or requires services beyond the volunteer’s authorized role, the member must follow USFDRC emergency procedures and promptly connect the individual with 911, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, local emergency services, or another appropriate licensed provider.
Applicants may be required to provide evidence of current professional licensure, good standing, relevant education, professional liability coverage when applicable, background screening, disaster-response training, and continuing competency.
Volunteer Reservist Members must comply with USFDRC policies concerning confidentiality, informed consent, professional conduct, documentation, safeguarding, mandatory reporting, incident command, conflicts of interest, and referral procedures.
Join the Mental Health Services Command and help advance mental wellness, resilience, awareness, and education for the people who dedicate their lives to protecting our communities.
NOT: FEMA also identifies Psychological First Aid, outreach, information, screening, and referral as disaster behavioral health functions. FEMA Behavioral Health Specialist qualification, SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center
The origins of The United States Fire Department Reserve Corps date to September 11, 2001, when at approximately 8:46 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Then, 17 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767 United Airlines Flight 175 appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.
As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C., and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:37 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.
Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane United Flight 93 was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airphone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected of having attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. America was under attack.
When Mr. Carmelo Baez returned from serving as a civilian volunteer from the New Jersey Shore as the Emergency Medical Services Unified Operation Chief responsible for organizing the Interagency Incident Action Plan to receive victims and patients by boats from Manhattan and transfer them to statewide hospitals and facilities. Including his services as a civilian volunteer on September 13, 14, and 15, 2001, as a Search and Rescue Team Leader at ground zero.
