Core Disaster Life Support Course
The Core Disaster Life Support® (CDLS) course is a 3.5 hour competency-based, awareness-level course that introduces clinical and public health concepts and principles for the management of disasters and public health emergencies. The course incorporates the “all-hazards” approach to personal, institutional, and community disaster management through the use of two unique mnemonics, the PRE-DISASTER Paradigm™ (which applies to event mitigation and preparedness) and the DISASTER Paradigm™ (which applies to event recognition, response, and recovery).
The overarching aim of the CDLS course is to provide participants from diverse professions, disciplines, and backgrounds with a common lexicon, vocabulary, and knowledge in disaster-related medicine and public health that can be reinforced and expanded in the BDLS® and ADLS® courses.
The CDLS course is aimed at a broad range of audience categories, including medical first responders, health professionals, health service providers, public health workers, and health support personnel.
