The CERT Curriculum has been in for a re-write through most of 2019. As of January 8th, 2020, the new curriculum has been released.

It contains an update to the layout, flow, and styling improvements as well as a number of significant changes.

  • The Units have been re-arranged:
    • Unit 1: Disaster Preparedness
    • Unit 2: CERT Organization
    • Unit 3: Disaster medical Operations I
    • Unit 4: Disaster Medical Operations II
    • Units 5: Disaster Psychology
    • Unit 6: Fire Safety and Utility Controls
    • Unit 7: Light Search and Rescue
    • Unit 8: Terrorism and CERT
    • Unit 9: Course Review, Final Exam, and Disaster Simulation Participant Manual
  •  Some of the notable changes include:
    • Unit 1: Disaster Preparedness:
      • Changed from ‘member’ to ‘volunteer’
      • Discussion of having a Home, Car, and Workplace emergency kits
    • Unit 2: CERT Organization
      • Brought in the CERT Size-up here (earlier in the teaching)
      • CERT Mobilization reflects SOP’s that might allow self-activation
    • Unit 3: Disaster Medical Operations I
      • Dropped all the START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment) as well as RPM (Respiration, Perfusion, and Mental state)
      • More focus on “Treating Life-Threatening Conditions”
      • Dropped pressure points
      • A section on tourniquet use
      • All the Basic First-Aid brought over from part II to this unit
    • Unit 3: Disaster medical Operations II
      • Same as previous version (just thinned down removing first-aid contents)
    • Unit 5: Disaster Psychology
      • Improved this unit a fair amount
      • Added ‘Listen, protect, Connect’ discussion
      • Improved a section on Stabilizing Survivors
      • Finally added a ‘Say This Instead’
    • Unit 6: Fire Safety and Utility Controls
      • Added the new ‘Global Harmonized System’ for chemical hazard communication
    • Unit 7: Light Search and Rescue
      • No significant changes
    • Unit 8: Terrorism and CERT
      • Added Active Shooter
      • Added Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)
      • Cyber Attacks

It will take for the new publications to be available as the FEMA warehouse needs to exhaust the current stock before new one will be shipped.

The Santa Clara County Fire Department will migrate over to the new content in the coming months.

At this point, it is not expected to have a FOG manual update until the next order is required (a year or so)

Please take a look at the new Participant manual and let’s start some dialog on the changes over the coming months.

All the content can be found at this address  http://www.ready.gov/cert