CDP training boosts Indian Health Service responders’ confidence

Thanks to training received at FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), staff of the Indian Health Service in Chinle, Arizona, are better prepared for future epidemics and pandemics. 

Owen Le Beau, Chinle Service Unit’s Emergency Management Specialist, says more than 300 staff members of the organization, including one-third of its initial COVID-19 Incident Management Team, are graduates of one or more CDP courses.  The majority are graduates of medical-related courses, such as the center’s popular Barrier Precautions and Controls for Highly Infectious Disease (HID); Emergency Medical Operations for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives Incidents (EMO); Environmental Health Training in Emergency Response Operations (EHTER Ops); Framework for Healthcare Emergency Management (FRAME); Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents (HERT); Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents (HCL) offerings. 

The training has “enhanced our confidence” that we can adequately care for the approximately 32,000 people in our service area in any health-related emergency, he said.   

Le Beau encourages others to take one or more CDP courses, not just because they’re free for state, local, tribal and territorial responders, but because the training is, in his words, “applicable.” 

“Everything you learn here, you can use back home,” he said.