A few weeks ago, a friend forwarded an email (twice forwarded already) originally written from the desk of the administrator of the California Disaster Healthcare Volunteers. What’s the DHV?
DHV is a program that registers and credentials health professionals who may wish to volunteer during disaster including doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, dentists, mental health practitioners, etc. DHV may be used by local officials to support a variety of local needs, including augmenting medical staff at healthcare facilities or supporting mass vaccination clinics. DHV is California’s Emergency System for the Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP).
The email explained that the new vaccination super sites popping up in Alameda are requiring a lot of medical and logisitical might and that volunteers are in high demand. I began to follow the steps outlined in the original email in mid-January and yesterday, I visited a county sherriff’s office in Dublin, CA to take a sworn oath, the last checkbox before being scheduled for volunteer service shifts.
Moving through the process to becoming a COVID response volunteer, while seemingly slow and highly bureaucratic, made me pause to consider the incredible amount of work that goes on in public health and disaster response. I don’t really understand the inter-relationships of the many moving parts and definitely wouldn’t want to be quizzed on the alphabet soup of acronyms belonging to the myriad municipal, state, and federal orgs. I do have incredible gratitude and appreciation, though, for how it’s all happening. It is really happening and it’s literally every day now that I’m hearing of a friend or family member getting their first or second vaccination and/or good news related to the vaccination effort. While I hope to have the opportunity to actively assist at one of the vax sites, my limited involvement has already been incredibly rewarding.