Bystanders Begone
Training empowers everyone to respond effectively in an emergency
I
By Julia Regeski
mmediately following a disaster, the
responsibility of helping survivors does not
belong solely to professional first responders.
Everyday citizens, many compelled by
compassion even in the chaos, have consistently
shown that they are willing do whatever they can to
help those in need.
Recently, the Chatham Emergency Management
Agency has been empowering members of their
community to act upon that compassion in a safe,
effective way. By presenting “You Are the Help Until
Help Arrives,” a program based on a comprehensive
curriculum created by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, participants are taught skills to
be used immediately following a disaster, before first
responder professionals are able to assist.
Chelsea Sawyer is the emergency management
specialist in community outreach at CEMA, as well as
the organizer and teacher of CEMA’s “You Are the
Help Until Help Arrives” presentations.
“The reason that I, personally, wanted to start
teaching this class is because of the Las Vegas
shooting, because of the church shooting that
happened in Texas, where everyday people made a
difference,” said Sawyer. “No one taught them how to
do it, but … if you teach people and you practice with
them regularly and show them that this is what they
can do to potentially save a life, that muscle memory
is going to come into play when an emergency event
happens.”
What students practice in CEMA’s course is
everything from psychological reassurance for
those affected to arranging those injured into a
safer “recovery position.” Driven by the idea that
anyone can make a difference in an emergency, the
course’s curriculum goes into great detail on exactly
what students should do at each stage immediately
following an incident.
Sawyer has taken this idea one step further, not
only relying on FEMA’s content, but also providing
more hands-on scenarios. “We let people touch an
actual tourniquet,” she said. “We show them what it
is, we pass it around the classroom and give them the
opportunity to see it and practice with it.”
Dale Worley, a student of the class and minister
at Unity of Savannah, which CEMA used as their
teaching space, was pleasantly surprised by this
effective teaching technique, but also at the simplicity
of the steps anyone can take to help.
“One of the things that spoke to and really
resonated with me is the idea that one of the best
things a person can do in an emergency is to provide
comfort to people,” said Worley. “Just letting them
know what’s going on, saying things like ‘help is on
the way, I’ll be with you until help gets here’ - I thought
that was pretty profound.”
The curriculum stresses that those immediately
affected by an emergency often remain in danger
longer than necessary solely because of the bystander
effect, the mentality that someone other than the
individual witness will provide assistance. CEMA’s
presentations have dispelled this belief amongst
students, and empowered more than 50 participants
to become responsible for providing crucial immediate
care after a dangerous situation. Many of these
students were forced to confront an emergency
following several major weather events in the past
year.
“For Hurricane Matthew, people thought the storms
would never hit Savannah,” said Worley. “They
said ‘we’ll be fine,’ and then we got a surprise. Even
though Irma kind of missed us last year, people were
still very nervous. To give them the tools that they can
use in any emergency situation and keep them calm –
it’s really valuable.”
To learn more about CEMA’s “You Are the Help
Until Help Arrives” course, contact Chelsea Sawyer at
912-201-4500. FEMA’s techniques used in the course
can be found on Ready.gov at https://www.ready.
gov/until-help-arrives.
Following a disaster like the tornadoes that devasted Albany, GA in
late January of 2017, many citizens feel unsure of how to help. Photo
by Lisa Rodriguez-Presley.
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DISPATCH