Hurricane Response Guide for Environmental Public Health Professionals
Appendix 1-B: Mutual Aid Mutual Aid Agreements
Mutual aid agreements and assistance agreements are agreements between agencies, organizations, and jurisdictions that provide a mechanism for quickly obtaining emergency assistance in the form of personnel, equipment, materials, and other associated services. The primary objective is to facilitate rapid, short-term deployment of emergency support before, during, and after an incident. There are many different types of mutual aid agreements that can be formed with multiple partners at all levels, including: International Regional State-to-State Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), which was the first Congressionally ratified mutual aid agreement County-to-County City-to-City Between agencies (interagency) and within agencies (intra-agency) Private Sector-to-Government The National Incident Management System (NIMS) Guideline for Mutual Aid provides guidance on different types of mutual aid agreements and their key components. Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is a voluntary interstate mutual aid compact. The mission of EMAC is to share resources during disasters, including any type of resources or personnel, such as EPH personnel, resources, and assets. EMAC is administered and managed by the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA). Credentialing Under NIMS, credentialing is the administrative process for validating personnel qualifications, providing authorization to perform specific functions, and obtaining specific access to an incident involving mutual aid, particularly when crossing state lines. The National Integration Center (NIC) developed the NIMS Guideline for the credentialing of personnel, which describes national credentialing standards and provides written guidance regarding using those standards. The typing library has three general EPH positions. Additionally, there are currently three job credentialing titles for EPH professionals. These are: Environmental Public Health Specialist Environmental Public Health Team Environmental Public Health Team Leader The categorization of personnel, resources, and assets is resource typed in NIMS. Resource typing categorizes by capability and the resources requested, deployed, and used in incidents. EPH is a Tier 1 resource-typing definition under Medical and Public Health Teams. Note: Some states, tribes, local jurisdictions, and territories use different terminology for EPH professionals.
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