Fort Novosel, Ala. - When a crisis occurs on an installation, be it a natural or man-made disaster, there is a group that helps Soldiers and civilians recover and return to their normal state of readiness.
According to Fort Novosel Army Community Services Director Kent Thompson, the Emergency Family Assistance Center (EFAC) is a special group of people from across the garrison, and affiliated organizations who can rapidly return Soldiers, family members, and Department of the Army civilian employees to a state of mission readiness. “That is the textbook definition. In layman’s terms I like to say it’s an Army Community Services program on steroids,” Thompson said.
During a crisis the EFAC is stood up to provide a centralized call center-like group that can help find assistance for those affected by the incident.
An EFAC is composed of personnel from over a dozen different organizations, including representatives from offices like the ID Card Office, Personnel, Casualty Assistance, the Logistics Readiness Center, Transportation Office, Housing, Child and Youth Services, Behavioral Health, Religious Services, the Red Cross, Directorate of Public Works, and the Judge Advocate’s office. Bringing these different offices and functions together, the EFAC can help Fort Novosel residents and personnel find just the right resources they need.
When a crisis occurs, individuals may find themselves with lots of problems of their own. Damaged homes, missing personal documents, lost medications, and missing family members are just a few examples. This is where the EFAC can help. Acting as a call center, individuals with problems like this can call in, and the EFAC can then connect them to the right resources. Displaced individuals can be connected to shelters and temporary housing options, individuals who lost medication can get help connecting with a pharmacy that can replace them, and people who lost identification or other vital documents can get help getting them replaced. Thanks to its inclusion of groups like the Red Cross and personnel offices, the EFAC can also help with things like locating or getting messages to family members that cannot be reached through normal channels.
Calling in, or even going to the EFAC in-person, the EFAC personnel can get a customer loaded into the Army Disaster Personnel Accountability and Assessment System, a computer system that will allow the EFAC personnel to track the person registered and ensure they get the help they need and aren’t forgotten.
From there, the EFAC can refer the people to the correct resources for their help, or in the case of an in-person walk-in, escort them to the right place.
The EFAC can provide direction for many issues someone might have, but it is not a medical support location. “The EFAC is not a medical treatment facility. People with medical issues should not come to the EFAC and instead call 911,” Thompson said.
When getting help the EFAC will start with a kind of triage system, where they’ll help identify what the person needs.
“When people have a disaster, they don’t always think clearly,” Thompson said. “So, it helps to have EFAC personnel who are not affected to help you.”
Once the EFAC member has helped identify the needs of the individual calling in, then they can be directed to the right office, or offices that can provide the most assistance.
“Part of my staff’s job is to ask a lot of questions,” Thompson said.
In the case of a walk-in customer, the EFAC can assign a volunteer to escort the customer to the office they need assistance from as well. In addition to the assigned office representatives, volunteers are a critical element of a functional EFAC. “I always need volunteer help, if nothing more than to escort people to the help they need,” said Thompson.
Following through, the EFAC can help with tracking to ensure that everyone is getting what they need until they are back to a state of readiness. During a crisis there’s a lot of little details and logistics to work out, so the EFAC must work to ensure that gets done.
“You can’t just put someone in a gym and just say ‘stay here’ for 24 hours,” Thompson said. “So, the Logistics Readiness Center can provide cots, water, blankets, and so on.”
Working to help restore readiness is a lot of work. While training and exercises will typically show a cross section of what an EFAC can do, in a real emergency it’s that long term service that really matters. “Real-world an EFAC case can take days or weeks to resolve, especially if they need help with something like finding a place to live,” Thompson said.
Of course, the best solution is to be prepared for a crisis. “We strongly recommend you go to https://ready.army.mil and follow the tips there,” Thompson said. However, when something happens that even good planning and preparation can’t address, the EFAC will be there to help.
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