School of Public Health involved with several relief efforts
Campus Web site shares news of U-M's response to the earthquake >
The School of Public Health has several activities under way to help with the Haiti disaster relief effort.
Disaster course
The Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness, which is housed at the School of Public Health, has a short course online called “Coping with Disasters.” The free course could assist first responders and those working on Haiti disaster recovery and relief, said JoLynn Montgomery, research investigator at the School of Public Health and director of the Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness.
The course is availableas a download at the Center for Public Health Preparedness’ Courses Web page. Scroll down to “Coping with Disasters.” For those who do not have high-speed Internet, a CD ROM is available upon request.
Course instructor Dr. Craig Katz served as the director of the World Trade Center Worker/Volunteer Mental Health Monitoring and Treatment Program, which meets the mental health needs of people who worked or volunteered at Ground Zero after 9/11 from 2002 through July 2006. Katz is now the supervising psychiatrist within that program.
The Office of Public Health Practice recommends that public health students not go to Haiti at this time unless with an organization formally responding to the disaster (such as the American Red Cross, Partners in Health, USAID, Oxfam, Doctors without Borders, or the International Rescue Committee), Montgomery said.
Volunteers need food, water, shelter, orientation to aide facilities, and this hinders relief efforts already underway. If students are interested in helping, Montgomery suggests they contact one of the above organizations and let them know of the specific skills they are prepared to provide, and then wait to be invited. The immediate aftermath of such a disaster requires very skilled rescue and medical personal. Public health students (in general) are not first responders, Montgomery said.
Coordinating meeting
SPH students have formed a coordinating group that will meet today at 4 p.m.in SPH I Room 3750 to discuss ways to help the Haiti disaster effort. Students will discuss coordinating supplies and money, and possibly organizing a trip over spring break or after the semester.
SPH fundraising effort
Public Health Students of African Descent, a student organization in the School of Public Health, is rganizing a fundraising drive among students, supported by faculty, staff and alumni.Nicole Dickelson is president of of PHSAD and Folasade Odeniyi is vice president.
Campuswide e-mail group
SPH/SSW student Carrie Rheingans created a campuswide U-M directory e-mail group for anyone wishing regular updates. This group is not moderated. To join:
1. Go to http://directory.umich.edu
2. Click ‘bind’ and log into the system
3. Search for UMHaitiRelief2010
4. Click ‘join’ on the top, left-hand corner
5. You are now subscribed to the relief update email list, which is unmoderated.
Haiti nursing school and dean reportedly OK
Rosemarie Rowney, president of the Haiti Nursing Foundation, and a graduate and emerita of the School of Public Health and School of Nursing, said the Faculty of Nursing Science of the Episcopal University of Haiti survived the earthquake, as did Dean Hilda Alcindor. U-M graduates and former faculty members helped start the school.
"The school survived the earthquake and the courtyard of the campus was being used to provide first aid assistance to the people," Rowney said. in an e-mail. "This is really wonderful news for us!"
Up until Thursday afternoon, Rowney and others involved with the school, including several U-M alums and faculty, had not had word of the dean or the fate of the building.
