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State health official asks Texas mental‑health licensees to join Medical Reserve Corps for disaster response
Summary
A Department of State Health Services official outlined the Medical Reserve Corps network and urged Texas mental‑health professionals to join local units. The presentation described typical MRC missions, onboarding steps and training; the council held a Q&A about rural access and coordination with Red Cross.
Brian Damas, community outreach and volunteer coordinator at the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council on June 24 that Medical Reserve Corps units around the state need more mental‑health volunteers.
Damas said the MRC network supports disaster response and ongoing community health outreach; in Texas there are about 26 units that train volunteers for shelter operations, points of dispensing, family assistance centers and psychological first aid.
Why it matters: Mental‑health providers can augment disaster behavioral‑health capacity during hurricanes, floods and other mass‑casualty events by registering with local MRC units or the Texas disaster volunteer registry. Council members asked how rural clinicians can participate and whether volunteers’ onboarding counts toward practicum or supervised hours.
Damas described the onboarding and training process: volunteers create a registry profile, list licensure and training, undergo a background check and licensure verification by the unit coordinator, and complete orientation and online FEMA incident command system training where appropriate. He said many units also provide psychological first aid training and that MRC volunteers may support shelters, vaccination campaigns, family assistance centers and call centers during major incidents.
During Q&A, council members and attendees asked whether rural clinicians should join nearby city‑based units and whether local education agencies have been involved. Damas said some rural volunteers join larger nearby units and commit to travel; starting a rural unit is possible but requires a sponsoring organization such as a local health department or emergency management office, which can be a barrier in counties with minimal infrastructure.
On coordination with Red Cross, Damas said local MRC units often collaborate with Red Cross chapters for shelter work and trainings, while the MRCs also perform broader or longer‑running public‑health tasks such as mass vaccination, mass dispensing and family assistance center behavioral‑health support.
The council encouraged licensees to review the DSHS MRC web pages and the Texas disaster volunteer registry and said the agency will circulate the speaker’s slides and after‑action reports from 2024 and the COVID response. Chair John Balamowitz and several board members described personal disaster response experiences and urged clinicians who can volunteer to register.
Sources and evidence: Brian Damas (DSHS) presented and answered questions; Chair John Balamowitz and members asked clarifying questions during the invited testimony segment of the June 24 meeting.
