Is this the kind of First Aid they have in CERT Training?
No – However many CERT programs do choose to use our Disaster First Aid course either to replace the first aid segment in CERT, or as a special course in addition to CERT, after people have completed all the other CERT subjects, or as a special opportunity for those who are interested in being a part of the Emergency Medical Team in their neighborhood or workplace Disaster Response Team.
C.E.R.T. programs usually have a little bit of "standard" first aid, and many of them describe S.T.A.R.T. Disaster Triage but may or may not actually teach how to do it. Our course does teach how to do it, and why.
"Disaster First Aid©What To Do When 911 Can't Come" is a separate copyrighted entity, NOT a part of any national or local CERT, NERT, DART, CORE, etc. programs, except when the individual programs choose to add it.
Who can teach this? Do I need to have medical or emergency training?
No - Anyone who has a basic understanding of first aid and can fully learn Disaster First Aid, probably can teach it.. Teaching experience is helpful and recommended but not required. The Powerpoint is very complete and guides you through everything. You must have someone, if not yourself, who has had enough first aid or other training that they know the basics of making bandages and splints. Most Boy Scouts know this, as well as EMT's, nurses, and often camp counselors and high school sports coaches.
Knowledge of professional or advanced techniques is not required, and may in fact be confusing to your students. One of the central concepts of the DFA is learning to improvise skills and materials, to adapt to disaster situations where you likely will not have fancy professional supplies to work with.
"Naturals" for teaching Disaster First Aid are EMTs, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, camp counselors, teachers of all kinds, first aid or CPR instructors, coaches, and retirees of any of these professions. (back to top)
How Can I become a Disaster First Aid instructor?
When you buy the Instructor Package, you are subscribing to the Disaster First Aid© Training System. You are entitled to use the PowerPoint and other teaching materials to teach classes. You can choose to teach DFA either as a non-profit community service, as a for-profit Small Business or Training Center, as a middle school, high school, or adult education class, or as part of an Employee Safety program.
This is true whether you are an individual, a corporation, or a government agency. However DFA is a copyrighted entity. You cannot, regardless of your affiliation (i.e. government or corporate) copy, reproduce or transfer any of the course content, or written materials, or advertise or claim rights of ownership of any part of Disaster First Aid©, by federal copyright law. (back to top)
How do I get certified to teach Disaster First Aid?
At this time there is no "certification" for this course. Disaster First Aid is now spreading across the U.S. and becoming international, so there is no way for our local organization to train, test, or monitor all instructors. You are on the honor system to teach the course ethically and with reasonable accuracy to the best of your ability and natural intelligence.
All of DFA has a commonsense approach, and the most important teaching and learning factor is to know and understand these simple formulas. In a real disaster, the details will vary, but if you have communicated the essence of DFA, your students will be able to adapt to the changing situations, much better than if they are burdened and confused by too many rules and details that will not fit anyway. (back to top)
What kind of equipment & materials do I need to teach this course?
The instructor Package of Teaching Materials, a computer or laptop with a CD drive, a projector (or rent one) a light-colored wall or whiteboard to project the slides on, and a variety of odds & ends and found-objects for your skills practice of bandaging and splinting. Lots of suggestions are in the Instructor Guide section of the Instructor Package. Your students will come up with more ideas, and the more you teach the course the more innovative your supplies cache will become.
You should have some standard first aid supplies on hand of course, like gauze, roll bandages, and tape, but most of your materials should be improvised to show your trainees that they can manage quite well with or without a professional-type first aid kit. Disaster First Aid is built on practical and functional common-sense, and this outside-the-box approach to the hands-on practice is also a lot of fun. (back to top)
If I buy your "program" what do I get for my money?
You get a very complete, comprehensive, copyrighted Training System that is designed for disaster from the ground up - not just another ordinary first aid course with a disaster "spin." With DFA you get:
1. The instructor kit with 80-slide PowerPoint presentation, text/handbook, Instructor Guide, detailed Teaching Outline keyed to the slides and textbook pages for all topics, all the forms you need including liability release, supply checklist, task checklist, class handouts, test & answer key, and more.
2. The right to teach Disaster First Aid© either as a community service or as a business, and set your own schedule and rates. Use it as a Small Business, or just to earn extra income while keeping your "day job".
3. A free listing and link on our web site "Where To Take a Class" page, with contact details and description of your business and bio if desired.
4. White Papers. You can link to any or all of our site's "Life Lines" articles for your students and clients to read and you're welcome to contribute stories also if you wish. (Which is good for your business.)
5. Email support from real human beings. We usually respond within 24 to 48 hours.
6. Good feelings about saving some lives out there, that you probably will never meet. (back to top)
How can I get enough people to take my classes?
Talk to your local schools, businesses, community groups, hotels and resorts, cruise lines - be resourceful. Later you can offer them options for monthly or annual repeat-classes with discount contracts. Put up a Web page on the Internet and link to the main DFA site to "coat-tail" our promotional information. Hand out fliers, send e-mails, put ads in "shopper" newspapers etc. Consider offering to "suitcase" your services - to teach at people's homes, churches, and offices. (DFA is very portable!) Use your imagination. Think outside the box. For more ideas, read the book "Guerrilla Marketing" or "Guerrilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business" by Jay Levinson & Seth Godin. (at bookstores and your local library.)
Generate interest with everything from Press Releases for local news media to 8x10 posters on telephone poles, to printed T-shirts for your friends and other instructors to wear in public places. Put cards or brochures in coffee shops and other places where people relax and talk, and on brochure tables in public libraries (ask permission first). Consider giving a free class at a community center to get the word out for your services, and ask for a public-service announcement of the free class on local small radio stations. And of course, you will have a free listing (with short description and bio) on our highly-Googled DisasterFirstAid website, on the "Where To Take A Class" page. (back to top)
What's the difference between this course and Standard first aid? Do I need both?
There are major differences in both content and function, but the short answer is:
"Standard" first aid is what to do for a few minutes just before you go to the ER or call 911.
Disaster First Aid is what to do when 911 can't come, and will not be coming for an unkown period of time because emergency services and hospitals are overrun and overwhelmed, as they will be in a major earthquake. (The predicted wait for help/rescue is 24 hours to 3 days.)
Traditional or standard first aid does have useful techniques and information, but ... It is not regulated by any medical or government authority; it has not been updated in decades, and it does have a few errors and recommendations that can cause worse harm to the injured person. If you have already taken some form of basic or standard first aid, some of the material you learned can be used along with the Disaster First Aid system. In particular, some of the basic bandaging and splinting can be helpful. For a more in-depth explanation and comparison, see "Why Isn't Standard First Aid Good Enough?" and "Standard first aid v. Disaster First Aid - What's the Difference?" (back to top)
What kind of Discounts do you give?
Schools, Small Business private instructors, and training centers get permanent discounts of 10% on books, in addition to whatever promotional offers occur. You will get an assigned voucher number which you type into the little box on the checkout page whenever you place an order. It's dated for one year and then is renewable on request. If you lose it, no problem - we can resend it from our records. (back to top)
I took CERT in my city and they had hardly any first aid at all. Their advertising said they would have Disaster First Aid but they didn't. Why didn't they?
Although we have done volunteer work for CERT in our area, and many CERT programs do use our Disaster First Aid course, we are not formally affiliated with CERT in any way. We don't really know why so many CERT programs tend to skimp on first aid. The basic recommended outline/curriculum for all CERT-type programs includes some first aid, but individual CERT programs are not strictly obligated to follow that currriculum.
Some of us at DFA took the CERT series in our city, and we met some great people. But we were very surprised (and so were they) that out of so many weeks of classes, there was only about 20 minutes spent on first aid. Possibly the CERT instructors felt the citizens could get standard first aid somewhere else, so they thought they didn't need to teach it.
Actually, most citizens feel strongly that the medical/first aid component is the most important thing they need to know about in a disaster. We've had many letters and questions like yours. (back to top)
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