[Community-service] emergency and disaster volunteers

Tue Sep 17 02:10:30 UTC 2013

Denise,
That’s good your experience went well in the first aid class.
I’ve definitely considered taking a first aid class.
What topics were in the first aid class? Did it cover how to treat burns and cuts?
Did you find the instructor willing to be accomodating?

When volunteering for emergency and military services at Red Cross,
was this from home? I’ve searched for community service activities a lot and a few years ago, in the summer, between school terms I tried to get into the Red Cross.
They said all the nice and right things so I went through a background check and then had someone install jaws at the office.
I thought I could volunteer in the fundraising department in the office.
But they wouldn’t take the time to train me or give me work to do once I got there, other than a few times stuffing envelopes.

Its good you volunteered for Red Cross; it’s a great organization.

I’m curious to know if anyone has volunteered on a Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, to help with disasters.

Thanks.
Ashley
From: Denise Shaible 
Sent: Monday, July 29, 2013 11:21 AM
To: Community Service Discussion List 
Subject: Re: [Community-service] emergency and disaster volunteers

Oh no, the first aid class was completely hands on.  My instructor actually showed me how to do all kinds of first aid using her as the guinea pig.  In fact, I bandaged her arm where she simulated a wound and the staff couldn’t believe it.  The HIV and AIDS class was lecture and I learned basic information about how one gets the disease and other important information.  Then I took a multiple choice test to get the certification.  I don’t know how long the certifications were good for.  this was in Florida and I’m sure it’s different for different states.

The fire was a local fire in an apartment building.  I also worked in Military Services, helping service personnel get leave due to loved ones being sick or dead.  That was a very fun job.  I guess the main problem for the Red Cross was understanding what I could do.  If you have a good idea of your skills, you may not have that difficulty.  I believe that since I trained at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, I could advocate for myself much better in volunteer situations.  I hope that answers all of your questions.

Regards,

Denise

From: Ashley Bramlett 
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2013 8:09 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List 
Subject: Re: [Community-service] emergency and disaster volunteers

Denise,
Wow, this is  impressive. Thanks for sharing.
What was covered in first aid and how could you do the class?
Was it more info based with lectures or hands on?

I’m guessing that the first aid techniques were illustrated in pictures and also you wouldn’t be able to see the wounds to treat them. I suppose you could feel some of it but with wounds you don’t want to touch much since it hurts the person and may contaminate 
them even if you have clean hands.

The cpr class is always hands on anyway, I’ve heard so I don’t see an issue there.
What about the HIV class?
What did they teach there? Prevention measures?
Also, how long is certification good for for these things: first aid, cpr, and HIV
For the fire disaster, was this a local issue?

Thanks.

From: Denise Shaible 
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 10:28 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List 
Subject: Re: [Community-service] emergency and disaster volunteers

I have taken training with the American Red Cross when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  I took a class which prepares people for work in shelters when there are hurricanes.  Unfortunately, my biggest hurdle was he attitude about working there and I never got to actually use the trainning.  I did, however, take a class in first aid and in CPR.  the trainer did not believe that I as a blind person could do some tasks such as bandaging a wound but, I had no difficulty.  In fact, I had to use this skill on my own thumb when I cut it with a knife.  I would like to take CPR again because I’m aware that there is a new way of doing it.  I also took a class in HIV and AIDS.  for this, I had to pass an exam and I had a reader to help me.  I forgot to say that in all of the hands on classes, the instructor described the technique and put his or her hands on mine to teach me when necessary.  I hope this helps.  As I said, the biggest problem was the negative attitudes toward blind persons.  I think, though, that I showed them a thing or two about blind persons.

One more thing, I volunteered for the American Red Cross in Emergency and Military Services.  I used my Braillenote to take down all of the information I needed to contact the Emergency Teams and Military Personnel.  On one occasion, we had a big fire and I was involved in receiving calls and letting people know about where to donate tings and whom to contact to learn about survivors of the fire.

Regards,

Denise 

From: Ashley Bramlett 
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 4:59 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List 
Subject: [Community-service] emergency and disaster volunteers

Hi Everyone,

I’ve considered taking some type of emergency response training.
There are several training opportunities through my county, fairfax county.

Has anyone taken training like this and used it? If so, what parts were difficult to do with limited or no vision? I would guess that  searching for people would be hard to do. What accomodations did you have?

I’m talking about experiences to train for natural disasters, helping victims, or any medical work. 
For instance working in a fire department, medical reserve core, or community emergency response team. I don’t think we can be parametics because you have to read the screens of medical equipment such as the electrocardiogram, but we could provide first aid or cpr or maybe help in some other way.

I’m going to also ask around if anyone in our chapter has taken CERT training or worked for the volunteer fire department in the office or helped the police. 

Thanks.

Ashley

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