…just another random person's thoughts & digressions.
Published a new article on HarrisonEMA.com:
Halloween Safety Tips
harrisonema.com
Just a friendly reminder that "Trick or Treating" will be on Wednesday, October 31, from 6-8pm for children 12 and under. The weather alert sirens will be set off to announce the beginning and end of the event. Please exercise extreme caution while …
Just a friendly reminder that “Trick or Treating” will be on Wednesday, October 31, from 6-8pm for children 12 and under. The weather alert sirens will be set off to announce the beginning and end of the event. Please exercise extreme caution while driving or crossing streets and busy intersections. Parents are encouraged to walk […]
Just a friendly reminder that “Trick or Treating” will be on Wednesday, October 31, from 6-8pm for children 12 and under. The weather alert sirens will be set off to announce the beginning and end of the event. Please exercise extreme caution while driving or crossing streets and busy intersections. Parents are encouraged to walk with their children and not follow in a vehicle. Safety is our #1 concern–and it should be yours as well!
Have a safe and Happy Halloween!
HALLOWEEN SAFETY TIPS FOR KIDS
Anytime a child has an accident, it’s tragic. The last thing that you want to happen is for your child to be hurt on a holiday, it would forever live in the minds of the child and the family. There are many ways to keep your child safe at Halloween, when they are more prone to accidents and injuries. The excitement of children and adults at this time of year sometimes makes them forget to be careful. Simple common sense can do a lot to stop any tragedies from happening.
Make Halloween a fun, safe and happy time for your kids and they’ll carry on the tradition that you taught them to their own families some day!
WINTERIZE YOUR HOME
Take the time now to get your home ready for the winter season by following these tips:
1. Have your heating system checked by a professional annually. This will ensure that your system is working safely and WINTERIZE YOUR HOME
Take the time now to get your home ready for the winter season by following these tips:
1. Have your heating system checked by a professional annually. This will ensure that your system is working safely and efficiently which, in turn, will save you money. If you heat by wood, clean your fireplace or stove. Have your chimney flue checked for any buildup of creosote and then cleaned to lessen the risk of fire.
2. Make sure your home is properly insulated. If necessary, insulate walls and attic. This will help you to conserve energy and reduce your home’s power demands for heat.
3. Caulk and weather-strip doors and windowsills to keep cold air out.
4. Install storm windows or cover windows with plastic from the inside. This will provide an extra layer of insulation, keeping more cold air out.
5. Inspect and flush your water heater.
6. Clean gutters. Leaves and other debris will hamper drainage.
7. Replace batteries of smoke, heat and carbon monoxide detectors. If you did not do it when you set the clocks back, do it now.
8. To keep pipes from freezing:
* Wrap pipes in insulation or layers of old newspapers
* Cover the newspapers with plastic to keep out moisture
* Let faucets drip a little to avoid freezing
* Know how to shut off water valves
Kids love Halloween! They get to dress up and get a bunch of free candy! What a perfect holiday! Give your kids some Kool Halloween memories that they'll have for life. Trick or treating isn't as safe as it used to be. It's not as safe to let kids walk the streets alone. Send a responsible adult or older teenager with them. Have a pumpkin carving party for your children and their friends a couple nights before Halloween. They'll enjoy looking at their creations for a few days before they have to be thrown out. Check the local grocery store or Wal Mart for Halloween cookbooks full of tasty treats on a horror theme for both kids and adults. Serve your kids a filling meal before trick or treating and they won't be as tempted to eat any candy before they bring it home for you to check.
• KY 356, KY 982 and KY 1032 – Beginning Tuesday, October 23, 2012, a resurfacing project will begin on portions of KY 356 (White Oak Pike), KY 982 (Edgewater-New Lair Pike) and KY 1032 (Colmansville Ridge-Berry Kelat Road) in which traffic may be restricted to a single lane during daytime paving operations. Delays are possible. Watch for flaggers as well as trucks entering and leaving the highway. This resurfacing project is expected to be complete by October 31st.
The following was written in response to a classroom forum:
Respond to one or both of these questions (respond to the second one only if you have experience with this):
Experience has shown that the hospitals nearest the scene of a disaster are often overwhelmed with self-triaged patients before the first EMS transports are dispatched from the scene. In your opinion, why do the “worried well” seek emergency services during these times, even if they are not sick or injured? How can organizations prepare for this expected influx of non- or mildly injured patients while still retaining the ability to care for the truly injured?
OR
Does your local law enforcement community have a program such as Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) in place? Have you had experience with it? What are some of the challenges tactical medics face?
There are many reasons as to why anyone classified amongst the “worried well” might seek care during a disaster situation; the most common reasons likely being connected to some incarnation of fear, misinformation, ignorance, or a combination of these elements. If we were to take an individual off the street and poll them on how they would respond to a given scenario, we might find that their response is one that differs from what we—varying members of the emergency community—would necessarily expect or recommend; this is simple ignorance of the proper methods, procedures or actions. The individual would, however, likely supply some sort of response based on the level of knowledge they possess of the given scenario, or some similar situation, referring to their simplest and most basic training in life—which, in this case, would likely be to seek immediate assistance from a professional.
To the medical professionals in this course—you have likely seen, responded, or worked on cases where a patient did not need treatment—or if they did, it could have came from a first-aid kit or a trip to the corner drugstore. Many of these patients may have been ignorant to the simplicity of their injury/ailment; some may have been knowledgeable—or would have been—had they not been influenced by the situation in some manner, triggering a flash of fear and confusion.
[Fear, confusion and other emotional responses can come at odd times and have quite an effect on our behavior. I had known a person that had broken their arm, and responded to it with an “Awe, cool!” mentality, chasing their siblings with a wildly flailing arm. Later in life, that very same person fainted from the sight of the pinkish skin he revealed on a finger after pulling back and ripping off a nail-cuticle. An odd tale–but one that shows how an individual can react differently to varying stimuli. In this tale, we can see how a single person may calmly respond and await treatment—arm flailing—or seek immediate treatment—cuticle—based upon their reaction to the event.]
To the parents of multiple children in this course—how many times did you rush your first-born infant or toddler to the hospital? Did you transport the child in your personal vehicle or await an ambulance? Did your next child make as many trips to the ER, or had you changed your perception of an emergency? Initial responses to a new situation, such as the care of a child are heightened, where there may not be a base of comparison or a personal knowledge-bank.
[Picture this one—your first-born infant is spiking a nice temperature. You do have knowledge that Tylenol can bring it down; you even have a bottle or two in the medicine cabinet; yet the sight and sounds of the baby in discomfort wipes your memory of this information. What do you do?—you likely respond by seeking a professional, either through calling a doctor, a family member, or by loading the babe in the car and driving to the hospital—and if you drove, it’s because you ‘knew’ that an ambulance wouldn’t come fast enough. Now, with the third or fourth kid, you simply mutter to yourself, grab a doser, and sigh when that sticky pink fluid drips down junior’s chin and all over that clean Onesie…]
With these examples of everyday possibilities to facing the “worried well”, we can understand how the numbers may grow in disaster situations—when people may be relatively fine or unharmed. Facilities must expect that there will be a greater influx of these patients as well as patients in true dire need of assistance. In order to prepare for these scenarios, the involved organizations must work to establish a triage system in which all patients can be evaluated and prioritized according to medical condition. Unfortunately, these efforts are only as effective in relation to the numbers of staff and personnel available, the size of any facilities involved, and the number of patients that arrive. Additionally, efforts will be affected by the communication between any agencies involved, whether any plans laid out are followed, and the unknowns involving the patients/public themselves/itself.
In communities where more than one hospital or medical center exist, multiple locations can be coordinated and organized for the receipt of the varying levels of trauma; clinics and related facilities may be used for low-priority trauma and first-aid, while larger hospitals are reserved for high-priority cases. Organizing, designating and publicizing such locations in such a manner would greatly reduce some of the headaches associated with a massive event; however, there would still be issues related to members of the public incorrectly identifying their injuries to either extreme, or bypassing a designated location out of personal preference. Staffing requirements and transportation may become an issue as well.
With regard to those persons who are more-or-less in a state of shock, suffering little to no injury at all, medical centers would need to respond with staffing persons able to handle the psychological aspects of disaster. Supplying a psychological support staff might be easier than it seems—as many of the patients are in a shock state and not necessarily psychotic, it would be possible to train additional staff in disaster psychology—support staff such as secretaries, housekeeping and maintenance, as well as staff from other supporting emergency services could be utilized to calm and speak with the patients.
In every aspect of the disaster situation, the medical community might benefit from establishing a medical reserve corps or nurses auxiliary; keeping in good contact with such reserves and inclusion of these additional resources in planning and exercises would be mandatory for successful operation and organization, however.
Yep, this post is just a simple little test of what I can do from my phone, while I am out and about…
…with as many tests I’ve done in the past of this sort of thing, one would think that there wasn’t any need for me to publish any more tests…
…and I am sure yay it is annoying to the few that haven’t figured out how to mute me on the various social sites–just about everything I do is patched into another service… So if all goes well, you’ll see this on Google +, Facebook, twitter, livejournal, and likely a few other places that I have forgotten about…
Blah.
I’m bored.
I should be doing homework…
…even Scully’s Alien Baby thinks so…
Halloween Safety Guide – Halloween Safety Tips for Kids
Kids love Halloween! They get to dress up and get free candy! What a perfect holiday! Give your kids some precious Halloween memories that they'll have for life. Trick or treating isn't what it used to be. It's not as safe to let kids walk the streets alone. Send a responsible adult or older teenager with them. Have a pumpkin carving party for your children and their friends a couple nights before Halloween. They'll enjoy looking at their creations for a few days before they have to be thrown out. Check your local grocery store or craft store for Halloween cookbooks full of tasty treats on a horror theme for both kids and adults. Serve your kids a filling meal before trick or treating and they won't be tempted to eat any candy before they bring it home for you to check.
HALLOWEEN SAFETY TIPS FOR KIDS
Anytime a child has an accident, it's tragic. The last thing that you want to happen is for your child to be hurt on a holiday, it would forever live in the minds of the child and the family. There are many ways to keep your child safe at Halloween, when they are more prone to accidents and injuries. The excitement of children and adults at this time of year sometimes makes them forget to be careful. Simple common sense can do a lot to stop any tragedies from happening.
* Help your child pick out or make a costume that will be safe. Make it fire proof; the eyeholes should be large enough for good peripheral vision.
* If you set jack-o-lanterns on your porch with candles in them, make sure that they are far enough out of the way so that kids’ costumes won't accidentally be set on fire.
* Make sure that if your child is carrying a prop, such as a scythe, butcher knife or a pitchfork, that the tips are smooth and flexible enough to not cause injury if fallen on.
* Kids always want to help with the pumpkin carving. Small children shouldn't be allowed to use a sharp knife to cut the top or the face. There are many kits available that come with tiny saws that work better then knives and are safer, although they can cut you as well. It's best to let the kids clean out the pumpkin and draw a face on it, which you can carve for them.
* Treating your kids to a spooky Halloween dinner will make them less likely to eat the candy they collect before you have a chance to check it for them.
*Teaching your kids basic everyday safety such as not getting into cars or talking to strangers, watching both ways before crossing streets and crossing when the lights tell you to, will help make them safer when they are out Trick or Treating.
Make Halloween a fun, safe and happy time for your kids and they'll carry on the tradition that you taught them to their own families some day!
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