Sudden illness, falls and accidents
An emergency is a sudden danger to life or health, for example chest pain, choking, a bad fall, heavy bleeding or a person who does not wake up.
- Stay calm. Take a breath. A calm helper thinks better and keeps the person calmer.
- Call for help. Dial your local emergency number (112 in India and many countries; 119 in some others). Say who, where and what happened. Do not hang up first.
- Give simple first aid. Check breathing, stop bleeding by pressing with clean cloth, keep the person warm and still. Do not move someone with a possible neck or back injury.
Afterwards, write down time, what you saw and what you did. Tell the family and the team.
Disasters: get ready before they come
A disaster hurts many people at once: earthquake, flood, cyclone, fire or heat wave. Care workers help most when they prepare.
- Know the safe route and the nearest shelter. Practise it.
- Keep a go-bag for each person: water, medicines for a few days, a list of illnesses, torch, radio, spare glasses, charger.
- Keep a list of people who need help: who is in bed, uses a wheelchair, is blind or deaf, or has dementia.
- Agree with neighbours who will help whom.
During the disaster: moving to safety
Use only the safe route. Never use lifts in a fire or earthquake. Warning signals (alarm, siren, phone alert) must reach everyone, so speak loudly and clearly, use writing or signs for deaf people, and describe the route to blind people.
Who needs help first? People who cannot move quickly or understand the danger: children, older people, people in bed or in wheelchairs, people with disabilities, pregnant women and people with dementia. Plan for a helper for each of them. Never leave them alone. Move people in a way that keeps them safe, and tell them what is happening in simple words.
In the shelter and afterwards
A shelter is crowded, noisy and unfamiliar. Care workers watch four needs: water and food, medicines (take them on time, tell the nurse about changes), warmth and clean place (to stop illness spreading), and calm and privacy (a quiet corner, a familiar face, simple talk). Check people with long-term illness first, and look for signs of shock or stress. After the disaster, help people return home safely and keep checking on their mental health.
Try it. At home, make a "who needs help" list for your street and draw the safe route on paper. Then play the free-play step and guess the time for each person.
Key formulas and definitions
- [object Object]
- [object Object]
- [object Object]
- [object Object]
Worked examples
1. A carer finds Mr Sen lying on the floor, awake but in pain in the hip. What are the first two steps?
Stay calm, then call for help (emergency number). Do not lift him if a bone may be broken. Keep him warm and talk to him until help comes.
2. An alarm sounds. Four people: a healthy adult, a child, a wheelchair user and a person in bed. Who should be helped first, and why?
The child, the wheelchair user and the person in bed, because they cannot move fast or at all. The adult can go with the group. Each needs a named helper.
3. Rina needs insulin every day. What should her go-bag contain?
Insulin kept cool, needles, a list of her illness and dose, snacks with sugar, water, a charged phone and the doctor's number.
Common mistakes
- Rushing and panicking. Calm comes first, then call.
- Moving an injured person without need. It may make an injury worse.
- Using the lift in a fire or earthquake. Use stairs or the safe route.
- Leaving the weakest for last or alone. They go first, with a helper.