Un-charted waters of the American Red Cross: Experiences of volunteers deployed to the Gulf Coast in 2005

Purpose: The 2005 Gulf Coast storms Katrina, Rita and Wilma required unprecedented emergency response needs, taxing both public and private agencies. The American Red Cross (ARC) deployed the largest number of volunteers in its history, many first-time responders. This study describes volunteers' perceptions of pre-deployment training, critical field skills, and follow-up needs. Methods: Four focus groups were held; two with deployed volunteers and two with ARC staff. An independent survey was administered via email to ARC volunteers. Results: New volunteers received a one-day training course. The most important training message reported was life skills such flexibility, patience and problem solving from returned volunteers. Veteran volunteers adapted best to field conditions and were better able to identify roles and assert their personal skills in a timely manner. Matching training to field conditions was complicated by ongoing field needs given the unique level of devastation and that most disaster plans anticipate short term needs for mass sheltering. ARC staff supervising volunteers in their call center reported high stress for volunteers and staff who had few cases where they could immediately solve problems. They suggested ways to improve morale such as daily debriefing sessions and highlighting success stories, in addition to number counts and other daily reports. Conclusions: Projected growing needs for trained volunteers to responding to global natural and man-made catastrophes require efforts to train larger numbers of volunteers and to improve short-term training for spontaneous volunteers. Policy and programmatic recommendations based on lessons learned from the ARC response will be highlighted.