KEEPING IN THE GREEN, A LETTER TO YOUR FUTURE SELF
To The First Responders
How it was
I have been a first responder for a long time, the culture early on was to keep your mouth shut and get on with it. Later as things improved there was a move to being more open and talking about how you feel, but for me personally I found it hard to adapt.
Reality
When you are a first aider/instructor/guide, you often work alone, people look to you as the leader, the one with the answers. Most of what you do will just be simple cuts and sprains, but we are out in the wilderness, pushing limits, embracing risk.
I hope it never does, but you could find yourself with a serious casualty. Outcomes are not always what you would like them to be, you have the weather, the remoteness, and the seriousness of their injuries to contend with.
Ever Increasing Circles
A good description of an accident is a stone hitting a pond. The impact is the casualty, then each concentric ring is someone else, witnesses, friends, family, responders, you. Everyone is a casualty at some level.
We've Got Your Back
I want to be there for you, if you have had to deal with an incident and you would like to talk it through, contact us. You'll have questions, “what should I have done?", “what could I have done better?". I can guarantee, nobody could have done better than you in that moment.
We use Psychological First Aid and the Stress Continuum for you to gauge where you are, Green, Yellow, Amber or Red each representing a different level of stress. We will touch base with you three times, within 3 days of contacting us, at 3 weeks and at 3 months. The aim is to keep you in the green.
How it works
Contact us by phone, message or email, we will call you back.
Keep it Real
We are not counsellors or therapists, we are just peers who know what you are going through and are there to chat, but to mostly listen. If you need professional help, we suggest you seek it.
Kind regards
Bruce
