CDP hosts 2018 Tribal Nations Training Week
A team assesses the status of an arriving patient during a mass casualty exercise. The students were among the more than 175 representatives from 54 Tribes and Tribal Agencies who attended the CDP’s 2018 Tribal Training Week, March 19-23. (Photo by John Van Winkle)
The CDP hosted its annual Tribal Nations Training Week March 19-23.
The focused training event brought together 177 students representing 54 tribes and tribal agencies who participated in six different training courses.
“This is the biggest tribal gathering FEMA has done in the last three years,” said Margeau Valteau of FEMA Tribal Affairs. “Spread the word,” she told the students. “I know you all had a great week here, and that’s what we need you all to help (with) to get more people here next year.”
Tribal Nations Training Week aims to enhance the response capabilities of tribal nations personnel and better prepare them to respond to emergencies in their communities.
Courses for the 2018 week were: Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents (HCL); Biological Incidents Awareness and Hospital Emergency Response Training (HERT); Social Media Tools and Techniques and Incident Command: Capabilities, Planning and Response Actions for All Hazards (SMTT); Medical Countermeasures: Points of Dispensing, Planning and Response and Community-Based Response to All-Hazards Threats in Tribal Communities; and ICS/EOC Interface Workshop and ICS Train the Trainer.
For several of the courses, the week culminated with an Integrated Capstone Event, which involved students treating patients from separate chemical agent incidents.
The evening lecture series was also a key component of the week, with three talks open to all students: ‘Medical Response to an Active Shooter Mass Casualty Incident in a Tribal Community’; ‘Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Management during a Tribal Declaration’; and ‘FEMA Grants.
The week also included presentations by a number of CDP training partners, including the Emergency Management Institute, National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center, Nevada Test Site’s Counter Terrorism Operations Support Program, Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium, Transportation Technology Center, Inc./Security and Emergency Response Training Center, and the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at the University of Hawaii.
The CDP will host a Tribal Nations Training Week focus group in the coming weeks, which will include the center’s training partners, to build on this year’s successes, said Dave Hall, CDP Tribal Nations Training Week project officer.