Medical Reserve Corps

Baltimore, MD

08 July 2004

Good afternoon, and thank you for that gracious introduction and welcome.

I congratulate you for your energy and your stamina – these have been three intense, work-packed days. I hope you were able to enjoy Baltimore’s attractions, after hours, or that some of you will take advantage of the weekend to visit DC.

Thank You and Congratulations

To the Medical Reserve Corps Program Office - Thank you for organizing this conference and for helping to facilitate the successful implementation of M-R-C units in communities across the nation. This is a very complicated program and your efforts are truly appreciated.

To CDR Rob Tosatto, thank you, for your calm, effective, and visionary leadership, and your personal commitment to helping others, as well as communities. Since you became Director of this program, you doubled the number of children in your family, injured yourself helping your daughter, and refused a direct order to stay off your feet for the past three days! We’ll talk later about that!

But seriously, when we talked about your staying off your feet, you argued that you needed to be up and among the attendees here. Now that’s commitment!

To the leaders of the M-R-Cs – Congratulations on your achievements. Your successes are very impressive and your efforts, passion and dedication to improve the public health systems in your communities are inspiring. Thank you for what you do as organizers, healers and helpers, to protect and advance the health and safety of our great nation.

Observations on the Growth of the MRC

What a truly inspiring conference. I don’t think any of us who were in Chicago at last year’s Medical Reserve Corps Conference could have imagined the kind of growth this program has experienced over the past year.

From 42 M-R-C communities last year to almost 200 this year. From less than 50 conference attendees last year to 350 this year.

This is a testimony to the effectiveness of the M-R-C concept, and to your successes. Communities across the nation are seeing the benefits of the M-R-C program and are creating new units at an increasing rate because they watch your communities flourishing. They see you making a difference, and they want to make a difference too.

But the M-R-C’s growth is not just in numbers. Your innovative ideas and initiatives are growing, and that is the heart and soul of this program.

So it is a real privilege to join you today to review the state of the M-R-C program from a national perspective.

The State of MRC Programs: A 30,000 Foot Perspective

Local, local, local. That’s the hallmark of MRC’s, making a difference and serving our local communities.

But let me share with you perspectives from a national, from a 30,000 foot level.

As M-R-C leaders, you understand that America must focus on being prepared at all levels: national, state, and local. America is constantly under threat, both intentional, such as those posed by terrorists through weapons of mass destruction, and through naturally occurring threats, such as weather disasters and emerging diseases.

Our preparation and our response to these kinds of threats and challenges are no longer the realm of a single discipline, but through an integrated and collaborating system of disciplines.

On Wednesday, you heard from Desiree Sayle, the Director the White House’s USA Freedom Corps, and from M-R-C’s federal partners in Citizen Corps.

These programs, working in collaboration at the national and local level, provide a strong framework for the integration and collaboration and complementarity of medical, public health, law enforcement, and non-specialized citizen volunteers.

As Dr. Carmona expressed to you at our opening session on Wednesday morning, we at the Department of Health and Human Services are aware of the deep community dedication to the M-R-C. You are significantly improving our readiness as a nation.

On September 11, 2001, we all watched the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania and felt the impact of that tragic day. Some of us were right in the middle of it!

A mere month later, on 10/15, we faced the threat of the anthrax release on Capitol Hill, and the widespread concern of what could possibly come next. And some of us were right in the middle of that!

But you did something different than a lot of people. You asked, “What can I do?” And then you took action.

You are taking the initiative to organize your communities to improve emergency preparedness.

You are communicating with the established public health preparedness and emergency response organizations in your community to figure out how you can best work together.

You are recruiting medical and public health volunteers, and giving them specialized training so they have the skills to respond to community needs.

You are defining the roles that they will fill.

You are improving preparedness.

This is important, not only for terrorism, but also for all hazards. And the best way for us to prevent and address these “all hazards,” is to have a strong and robust public health system.

And from what I have heard over the past few days, your M-R-C volunteers are truly helping to strengthen the public health system in America. You are exercising your M-R-C units in ways that will help integrate them with the existing public health and emergency response agencies of the community. Many of you have worked closely with your Strategic National Stockpile coordinators and have prepared for the deployment of that resource.

The activities and successes YOU presented at this conference strongly support Surgeon General Carmona’s public health priorities for America, as he outlined to you on Wednesday.

Your tireless efforts to work on the priority of public health preparedness is very clear.

But your M-R-C units are also serving the priorities of prevention, eliminating health disparities and improving health literacy.

We can improve health literacy by educating the public in a way that will encourage them to take charge of their health.

Of course, some messages will affect the people in a certain community more than others. The statistic that 7 of 10 Americans who die each year die of a chronic disease, and most of these diseases are preventable, may move some people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. However, others will make a lifestyle change only if they are inspired by someone else in their community – someone who is knowledgeable, someone they trust.

Health education is a continuing and particular challenge in a diverse nation such as America. And your volunteers can work locally with your community population, to tailor health messages specifically targeted to your community, for your community.

During the discussion session after Dr. Carmona’s address, one of you urged him to “commission” his M-R-C army to work on smoking cessation programs – an “army” of people to fight and to prevent diseases, especially those diseases that result from our own choices. To this I would like to say something that I always try to make very clear about the M-R-C program…that it is “local, local, local.” M-R-C is a local resource, run at the local level, to meet local needs. And it is important to consider local priorities. But the science and the evidence are clear – that tobacco use kills, and that obesity is an epidemic, and that diabetes is rising rapidly as well.

I do strongly encourage M-R-C units to be involved in programs that educate people to make healthy choices: in physical activity; in tobacco use; in overweight and obesity; in seat belt use and in other public health concerns. M-R-C volunteers can and do help Americans understand what they can do to prevent disease and to stay healthy. And it is not only prevention; it is public health preparedness, it is eliminating the health gap. It is improving health literacy.

At this conference you have had the opportunity to meet many of the HHS Regional Health Administrators. These are key people, who help translate from the 30,000 foot level to the states and to the communities. Work with these individuals in your region to find out more about the HHS initiatives that are underway or planned, such as those that meet the goals of Healthy People 2010. Your M-R-C could be well poised to get involved or to lead the way.

I suspect – I hope -- that the information shared here over the past few days will bring a new wave of M-R-C activity nationwide. The success stories you have heard about can be imitated in your community. It just takes one person to get it started, and I thank you for taking on that responsibility.

Issues and Challenges

We hear you loud and clear about some of the complex issues and challenges that you face. Funding. Liability. Credentialing. Training.

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers. Yet we certainly wished we did. But I know that CDR Tosatto and his staff will continue to work with you and to help you as much as possible. Until we collectively find answers and solutions, that is the value and the power of a national leadership meeting, of a concept that is local, local, local – so we can share ideas, approaches, solutions, best practices.

Charges to the M-R-Cs: Reporting

I want you to continue to communicate with us in the National Program Office, and to tell us about your successes and your obstacles. The more you tell us, the more we can respond to your needs and share information by delivering the most effective and appropriate tools and technical assistance.

And, the more you tell us, the more we are able to bring stories about your successes and your needs to our leaders and to the public. We are often asked for information from within HHS, as well as from other agencies, Congress, and the White House.

When you get this information to us, your stories, pictures, best practices, and documents can be put on the M-R-C website, and it becomes a virtual version of what we have experienced here in person – a virtual conference – a virtual sharing and dissemination of experiences, both successes AND failures; both what works (in YOUR community), and what doesn’t. Someone once said, if you don’t fail once in a while (Note, it is “once in a while,” not “all the time”), you aren’t trying hard enough to push the envelope, to try new things, and new ways of doing things.

“Ships in the harbor are safe; but that is not why ships are built.”

When another M-R-C unit from another part of the country learns from your best practices and your experiences through the website, we are together creating a true community-based, national program. And one that makes America stronger, safer, and healthier. I encourage you to share – both successes and failures – so we can all learn and grow.

State Coordination

I am pleased to hear of your enthusiasm for state level coordination. State-wide coordination can help you to pool your efforts to address some of the difficult issues, such as the possible state legislative changes needed for liability coverage and retiree or volunteer licensure. Also, it is important that your M-R-C be represented as plans and decisions are made to dispense the variety of grant funds that are coming to the state.

I realize that state level coordination is evolving and wish you all the best of luck with these efforts. It will be worth it.

Common identity

While each of your groups are very different - in structure and in function - you each do have something very much in common. You have a common identity. You are a Medical Reserve Corps. And as a registered M-R-C, you are a part of the White House’s USA Freedom Corps and Citizen Corps. You are part of a strong national movement.

I encourage you to make the most of this common identity, both philosophically and visually. Use the Medical Reserve Corps name and the Medical Reserve Corps logo. We are doing our best to get the M-R-C known to agencies, associations, potential volunteers and the general public. By using the common M-R-C identity, you will reap the benefits of our activities. You can also serve as a force multiplier for us, to help us get better name recognition as we become a “brand” – a “brand FOR America!”

We want the M-R-C to be among the first things a medical or public health professional thinks of when he or she desires to volunteer.

We also want the M-R-C to be among the first community resources a local public health official thinks of when they begin to bemoan the fact that they don’t have the staff to do an important public health initiative – an initiative that will prevent disease, or protect the community, or improve health, or enhance the quality of our lives.

Closing

The safety and security of our nation is measured not only from the perspective of guns and armor, but from the perspective of public health. You heard from Dr. Venkayya, from the White House Homeland Security Council, that strengthening public health is a priority.

All Americans are benefiting from your efforts and your volunteers’ efforts. I am here to express collective appreciation for what you do, every day, to improve all hazards preparedness and the overall health of Americans.

As a public servant for more than 30 years myself, I realize first hand the personal satisfaction that one can derive from helping others. I see that you share my passion for serving the public’s health, and it is in that spirit of camaraderie that I leave you today, and that we leave each other. Safe travels home!

Thank you for what you do every day, to make a difference. May God bless you all; and may God bless and protect our great nation, the United States of America.

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