Disaster Medicine Section Resources

Welcome to the Disaster Medicine resource page.

These resources are here to help all emergency physicians, especially those physicians that are responsible for disaster planning at their facility.

National Preparedness Month has many resources for each month to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time. "Preparing for disasters is protecting everyone you love.”

Learn More at READY.GOV

Aid for Earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Dear ACEP and SAEM members,

We have been watching with great sorrow the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Many of you may be looking for ways to aid in the humanitarian response, so we would like to provide some general guidance.

Decades of disaster response experience have shown that locally-led disaster response is the most successful. While international organizations are doing much work in Syria and Turkey, small organizations with deep roots in these communities play a critical role. 

Even with these locally trained staff, international support remains critical. Medications, supplies, and funding remain in short supply. We encourage members to help support the earthquake response in an organized and professional approach. 

We discourage self-deployment. People who go to a disaster area without being part of a trained, organized team risk compounding the disaster by getting lost, getting sick, or getting hurt - consuming resources that could otherwise be spent on the medical response. It is unwise and dangerous to go to a disaster zone alone. If you want to go, make sure it is with a reputable organization with long experience with disaster response and/or a deep history of working with the affected population. Ideally both. 

Instead, members who want to help can support organizations already on the ground. These organizations can always use financial support to continue to care for the sick and injured, and some are accepting volunteers. Though we are not able to provide a comprehensive list of organizations to support at this time, we provide a few links below for your information:

• OCHA Turkey information
• OCHA Syria Cross-border Humanitarian Fund
• ICRC
• MSF
• NPR

We will continue to work with our domestic and international members and other organizations to keep you informed of the evolving situation and to help you find ways to help.

Sincerely,

ACEP’s International Section

ACEP’s Disaster Section

SAEM’s Global Emergency Medicine Academy (GEMA)

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Projects and Grants

• Disaster Preparedness and Response Committee
  The Committee continues to work on a variety of disaster medicine-related objectives.  The committee members and objectives can be found on the committee homepage.
• Disaster Section Projects
  Website Improvement - the section has been improving the section website over the past year to better serve as a resource to its members.  The section leadership would like to hear feedback and recommendations for additional content.
• ACEP EMS and Disaster Preparedness Department
  The EMS and Disaster Preparedness Department continues to work on federally funded disaster preparedness grants.  A complete listing of projects can be found on the department website.