Disaster Deployment day 10, 11, 12 and 13

This will be a piecemeal entry because I had a draft post that was never sent.

Day 10: Today is a beautiful day. I feel well rested, enjoy the team I have been working with, and my supervisor has been honest and available and kind. In the midst of chaos it's apparent who can handle the stress and who needs extra support. I feel very lucky that I could be honest with my supervisors and have some shifts in our team assignments to facilitate better communication and team dynamics.

One of my teammates is from Massachusetts, a retired psychologist. And my other teammate is a retired nurse from Utah! We have had a lot of fun getting to know each other, learning working styles, and working hard together. We start our days around 7 am at headquarters in Birmingham (where we are staying) by sorting our previous day's paperwork, updating our packets, getting questions answered, answering questions for other people, and having meetings. Because of delays with that first part, we typically get on the road for Tuscaloosa between 9:30 and noon and the drive takes about an hour and a half.

Considering the complicated nature of the cases our Integrated Care Teams are handling, combined with the paperwork and documentation, we spend about 3 or more hours per case on the various pieces. It seems our average face time with families is 1-3 hours depending on their interest in sharing their story, the amount of information we need to assess their situation, and the level of assistance we provide.

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Picking up where I left off...

Clearly I got even more busy with work so the first thing gone was the motivation to write.

For the past few days my team has been following up with all of our clients in Tuscaloosa County that were hospitalized. It was neat to watch the patients progress in their recovery and I am glad to be wrapping up work in the hospitals. There are still many fatalities to be followed through on so our work is far from done, and I seem to have found my second wind. Because of the flooding and recovery from Tornadoes throughout the US, we are stretched to the gills for volunteer coverage. I was originally flying out this Saturday, and because we were asked (and I was given the approval from work) I will be extending a few more days until Thursday next week.

Gotta run...