The Death Notification and Survivor Care Program and The Althea Foundation have created a learning tool designed to educate, support and train Casualty Notification Officers (CNOs) in the U.S. Armed Forces to deliver accurate and compassionate casualty notifications. By using advanced technologies, we are able to effectively and rapidly disseminate up to date clinical practices.
Given 24-hour news cycles, internet and cellular communications, CNOs must deliver this difficult news as quickly as possible. Ensuring that CNOs have the benefit of the most advanced protocols and support can be an extremely challenging task. We have found that a poorly-delivered notification can have serious mental and physical health consequences for both the notifier and the next-of-kin, so the CNOs play a crucial, pressured role during a pivotal encounter between the military and the families of those who serve.
The Althea Foundation has funded the Death Notification and Survivor Care Program at the University of California, San Francisco. The program is using an Adobe Macromedia Breeze application , a server-based distant-learning platform, to address the needs of notifiers and family survivors by delivering accessible content to help the Army provide crucial training content over the web.
The following page gives an overview of the five-module training and the methods in which this information is deployed. Along with supplementary services - a toll free phone line and an audio CD - these online modules provide training for on-the-clock notifiers, as well as self-paced support and education for CNOs preparing for this uniquely difficult encounter.
Feel free to visit the Ondemand Seminar here...