FEMA'S NEXT THINK TANK CONFERENCE CALL - TOPIC: EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, HEALTHCARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH: INCREASING COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION - June 28, 2012

Please join Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator of FEMA, and Dr. Nicole Lurie, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as they host the next FEMA Think Tank conference call on June 28, 2012, from Houston, Texas.

WHAT:                      FEMA-ASPR Think Tank
WHO:                         Richard Serino, Deputy Administrator of FEMA and Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
WHEN:                             Thursday, June 28, 2012
11:00am – 1:00pm (Central) 12:00pm- 2:00pm (Eastern)

WHERE:                  Houston, TX

Call In:           888-989-4401

Passcode:        Think Tank
Captioning:    Individuals who would like to access the captioning for this event may do so by following this link: http://fedrcc.us//Enter.aspx?EventID=1967851&CustomerID=321

The FEMA Think Tank is a forum to engage the whole community, connect resources and share best practices, and develop solutions to the challenges we face in emergency management.  Featured topics have included incorporating preparedness into school curriculums, new technologies in emergency management and disability integration.  This conference call is a unique opportunity for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the FEMA Deputy Administrator to highlight the importance of integrating healthcare, public health and emergency management. 

The focus of this month's call is Emergency Management, Healthcare, and Public Health: Increasing Coordination and Collaboration. Topics that will be discussed include:

·         Emergency Management Coordination, improving communication with the Healthcare and Public Health sectors;
·         Medical Incident Support Teams (M-IST), a cutting edge best practice supporting State Emergency Management; and
·         Tennessee Mental Health Response Plan- coordinated state, regional, and local mental health planning and response efforts for disasters of any type; and Tennessee Recovery Project- creative approaches to providing services to reduce stress and the impact of disasters on survivors.

Please visit the Think Tank Online Forum and share your ideas on how to improve coordination and collaboration between emergency management, healthcare, and public health. 

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact FEMA's Office of Disability Integration and Coordination atfema-disability-integration-coordination@fema.dhs.gov or (202) 646-4100.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

NIMSCAST Training 16-25 July #NIMS

The National Integration Center will offer another series of one-hour NIMSCAST Training webinars July l 6-25, 2012.

Note: This NIMSCAST Training was previously offered in April, 2012. If you participated in one of the April sessions, you do not need to participate in one of these sessions.

Webinar registration is open to all NIMSCAST users on a first-come basis. All registration dates are available to users from all FEMA Regions. Each webinar can accommodate 45 participants. To register for one of the available sessions listed below, please register by July 13, 2012 on the NIMSCAST Training registration website at http://nimscasttraining.eventbright.com

For additional information, contact Christina Thomas, by e-mail: christina.thomas@fema.gov or by phone: 703-943-5259.

Date Time
Monday, July 16, 2012 10:00 -11:00 AM (ET)
Monday, July 16, 2012 4:00 5:00 PM (ET)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:00 -11:00 AM (ET)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 4:00 5:00 PM (ET)
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 10:00 -11:00 AM (ET)
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:00 5:00 PM (ET)
Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:00 -11:00 AM (ET)
Thursday, July 19, 2012 4:00 5:00 PM (ET)
Friday, July 20, 2012 9:00 10:00 AM (ET)
Friday, July 20, 2012 12:00 1:00 PM (ET)
Monday, July 23, 2012 11:00 AM 12:00 PM (ET)
Monday, July 23, 2012 5:00 6:00 PM (ET)
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:00 AM 12:00 PM (ET)
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:00 5:00 PM (ET)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 11:00 AM 12:00 PM (ET)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:00 4:00 PM (ET)

Additional information concerning NIMS, NIMS implementation, and NIMSCAST can be found on the NIMS Resource Center (www.fema.gov/nims). All questions can be directed to the National Integration Center at 202-646-3850 or via e-mail: FEMA-NIMS@fema.dhs.gov.

Application Period for Assistance to Firefighters Grants Opens Monday, June 11 at 8 a.m. Eastern Time!

Application Deadline: Friday, July 6, 2012, 5 p.m. Eastern Time

Who is eligible to apply?

• Fire departments (career, volunteer, and combination)
• Nonaffiliated emergency medical service (EMS) providers

What items are eligible for grant funding?

• Operations and Safety Projects: Training, equipment, personal protective equipment, modifications to facilities, wellness and safety projects
• Vehicle Acquisition Projects: Firefighting and EMS vehicles
• Regional Projects (benefiting multiple departments): Training, equipment, personal protective equipment

Funding Priorities: See the AFG Program Guidance and Application Kit for a description of the funding priorities for FY 2012.
Questions? Call the AFG Help Desk toll-free at 1-866-274-0960 or contact AFG staff members by email at firegrants@fema.dhs.gov.

Learn More, Apply »

HHS Facebook Preparedness App launched!

Winning applications from HHS Facebook challenge go live
New applications support personal preparedness for hurricanes and
other emergencies

Two new free personal preparedness applications go live on Facebook
today, as hurricane season begins, to help people support each other
during an emergency and become better prepared by identifying
lifelines. Lifelines are Facebook friends a user can count on, and who
agree to check on them in an emergency, supply them with shelter,
food, or other necessities, or provide the user's social network with
an update about their situation.

"After disasters, a tremendous number of people use Facebook to post
and share information, so developing a Facebook app that would help
people establish social connections they'll need in an emergency
seemed like a natural way to enhance community and individual
resilience," explained Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for
preparedness and response, Health and Human Services, and a rear
admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service.

The two apps, bReddi and Project: Lifeline, do more than allow users
to identify lifelines. They also let users create and share personal
preparedness plans, and track the status of their Facebook friends in
disaster-affected areas. Both apps achieve the goals of helping
families and friends to plan more easily, being better prepared when a
disaster strikes, and more reliably and efficiently getting the word
out about each others' health and safety.

This capability means people can more easily learn whether their loved
ones are safe, helping the people affected by the disaster and those
searching for missing people. The apps also allow users to print cards
with a snapshots of their preparedness plans to carry in their wallets
as quick references about what to do when a disaster strikes.
??Both apps can be accessed through the ASPR website
www.phe.gov/lifeline/ or directly through Facebook.

"The question is, who can you count on in an emergency and who can
count on you?" Dr. Lurie said. "We know that people who have friends
or relatives they can rely on for help are healthier and live longer
than those who don't, and that every disaster has the potential to
impact health, so having people you can depend on for help is
especially important during a disaster. That's why we are encouraging
everyone to identify their lifelines in advance."

These apps were winners of a challenge sponsored by the HHS Office of
the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). It was
the first challenge for a Facebook application to be sponsored by the
department.

After a thorough search of Facebook revealed a lack of personal
preparedness apps, ASPR issued the Facebook Lifeline Application
Challenge to bridge the gap. The challenge called on software
application developers, entrepreneurs, social networking enthusiasts,
members of the public health and emergency response communities to
design new Facebook applications that would support individual and
community resilience.

How to Choose an Office Suite: 8 steps - wikiHow

If you are looking for an office suite ... as in a computer software package including word processor, spreadsheet, etc., then this article is a must.

It compares the various styles of products.  There's even some free ones.

How to Choose an Office Suite: 8 steps - wikiHow:

'via Blog this'