H.E.L.P. Course at http://www.hopkinshumanitarianhealth.org/education/help-course

The Health Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP) course is offered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in joint collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. For more than 20 years, the HELP course has offered humanitarian workers an intensive training experience in public health principles and disaster epidemiology. The course was founded based on the need for humanitarian workers to acquire a holistic understanding of the needs of refugees, internally displaced persons, and others affected by natural disasters and conflict in order more effectively manage health crises in emergency settings.
The goal of HELP is to create an understanding the of the public health needs of populations in disaster and conflict situations. This includes the background, underlying causes, and the dynamics that cause populations to be vulnerable in emergencies. Topics covered during the course include disaster management, food security and nutrition, environmental health, health and surveillance systems, humanitarian ethics, human rights and human security, conflict origins, and security for aid workers.
The aim of the HELP course is to equip participants with the basic skills and competencies to enable them to respond to the public health needs of populations in emergency situations. These include the areas of planning, epidemiological assessment, control of communicable diseases, information and surveillance systems, environmental sanitation methods and meeting nutritional requirements in refugee situations.
At the completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Select methods for assessing specific emergency situations in the field
• Develop and implement a general or a specific health program to assist a displaced population
• Foresee that immediate assistance projects might need to be extended into long-term development programs
• Develop a common approach to providing services among humanitarian organizations
• Monitor the adequacy of the service being provided to an affected population
• Assess the ethical implications of all possible plans of action during an emergency
• Apply the principles of International Humanitarian Law when providing services in conflict situations
HELP includes on-site lectures with the sector’s leading practitioners and academics. Through in-class assignments and group exercises, students gain important skills necessary for humanitarian response, including skills in epidemiological methods and management of health emergencies.
The HELP course is typically offered twice per year, over two weeks in January and three weeks in July. The course is held at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland where instruction takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for the duration of the course.
All healthcare and public health professionals working in large-scale health emergencies and humanitarian assistance should consider attending the course.
Previous participants have come from a variety of civil society, governmental, and private organizations and include nurses, physicians, public health professionals, nutritionists, and humanitarian aid workers focused on health in humanitarian emergencies.
2018 HELP Course dates:
Winter Institute - January 2 - 12, 2018
Summer Institute - July 9 - 27, 2018