US to Train High School Students in How to Stop the Bleed

The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) in Rockville, Maryland, will provide free trauma response training to high school age students through a new partnership.

The Federal organization and academic center, founded by five federal agencies, was awarded grant funding for its proposal to establish the School-Age Trauma Training  (SATT) program.

NCDMPH was one of more than 20 applicants for the 2018 competitive grant process a joint funding program of the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FEMA, according to the announcement.

The federal academic center was established to better prepare the nation to respond to natural and man-made disasters or other catastrophic public health events. It will be given up to $2.3 million in federal funding over three years to develop and teach students how to tend to traumatic injuries and control severe bleeding until first responders arrive on the scene.

The funds are intended “to establish a long-term, self-sustaining mechanism (e.g. no further Federal funding beyond Phase III), to deliver free to the public, lifesaving trauma training to high school age students for mass casualty events. The government expects the grantee to design, develop and implement a training capability based upon the Phase tasks and to sustain the offerings beyond the Phase III funding resource provided by the government,” according to the published grant.

We need to acknowledge that during a disaster, individuals in impacted communities are the first responders,” said FEMA’s Deputy Administrator for Resilience Daniel Kaniewski. “Young people live through the same disasters as adults, and we want to empower them with lifesaving skills to help speed response and recovery efforts.”

Partnership to Deliver Training Through Local Organizations

Under guidance from the DHS Directorate and FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division, NCDMPH will work with the American Red Cross and HOSA-Future Health Professionals to develop a training curriculum, outreach strategies and plans to implement SATT nationwide.

The partnership will work with numerous local level organizations to maximize student access to the severe bleeding control training:

• Public and private schools
• Youth-oriented not-for-profit agencies
• Faith-based organizations
• Civic associations

Next Steps to Establish Broad Stop the Bleed Training

The funds, made available over three program phases, will cover development of:

• Research-validated age-appropriate curriculum
• Online tools, including study aids and collateral materials
• Mechanisms to track program metrics

The training program will complement other FEMA citizen responder initiatives such as the “Community Emergency Response Team” program and “You Are the Help Until Help Arrives,” according to the announcement.

“This has the potential to save countless lives by empowering our high school age students with critical first aid knowledge they can carry with them throughout their lives, so they can tend to those in distress until help comes,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology William N. Bryan.

For more information about SATT, please contact first.responder@hq.dhs.gov.