• Preventing a food allergy
• Food allergy myths

There was a time when gastroenterologist Professor Katie Allen dismissed food allergy as something that had been overhyped by the media – until two things changed her mind. One was going to work in a hospital allergy unit and seeing first-hand how common the problem was. The other was taking a bite of toast with peanut butter and feeling her throat start to swell until it felt like she’d swallowed a small golf ball.

Now she’s a senior researcher into food allergy at Melbourne’s Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and – just in case – she carries an EpiPen, the injection kit that provides first aid for anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.

Senior allergy researcher Professor Katie Allen.Photo: Emma Phillips

Two generations ago, EpiPens were unheard of and taking peanut butter to school didn’t provoke hostile debate between parents. Back then allergies were uncommon, especially food allergy. Now around one in 50 Australian children has a peanut allergy. A 2013 study by a team of researchers led by Katie Allen found that one in 10 children aged 12 months living in Melbourne had a food allergy – the highest incidence of food allergy ever reported in the world. Hospital admissions in Australia for severe allergic reactions for anaphylaxis due to food allergy in children aged four and under have jumped five-fold in the past 10 years.

We live in an age of food panic – carb panic, sugar panic and, more recently, berries-from-China panic – so it’s easy to think that with food allergy the enemy is food, especially foods such as cow’s milk, peanuts, tree nuts, seafood, sesame, soy, fish and wheat that are most likely to trigger allergy.

But the problem isn’t food – instead there’s a growing recognition among scientists that something is sabotaging our immune systems.

The suspect is a mix of changes to how we live that has occurred relatively rapidly, and may include cleaner environments, too much over-processed food, insufficient vitamin D – and,  possibly, our expanding waistlines, says Professor Susan Prescott in a new book, Origins, an early life solution  to the modern health crisis.  In it, Prescott, from the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia, looks at what it might be about Western lifestyles that can mess with our immunity and leave us vulnerable, not just to allergy, but to common autoimmune diseases such as coeliac disease (where the digestive system reacts adversely to gluten) and Type 1 diabetes.

Let’s start with the gut. Not just a place for digesting dinner, it houses millions of microbes that can influence our health, including the immune system. Research suggests that the kind of microbes inhabiting the gut in early childhood may affect how well a fledgling immune system develops, says Prescott. But there are signs that modern lifestyles have altered our gut microbes and that this is affecting our immune system. Although it’s not clear what the ideal mixture of microbes is and how to attract them, there are clues. One is that what you eat helps determine which microbes live in your gut. One example is fibre, which works as a prebiotic. This means it provides food for friendly microbes, helping good bacteria to flourish. But with so much highly processed food, Western diets can be light on fibre. However, research in young children has found that giving prebiotic supplements has a beneficial effect on the microbes in the gut, says Prescott. It also reduces eczema – and children with eczema are more likely to develop food allergy.

The microbes we meet outside the gut may make a difference too – it could be that exposure to a broader range of microbes in early childhood may help to stimulate the immune system.

“There’s evidence that mothers who live in high microbial environments during pregnancy are less likely to have allergic children,” says Prescott, pointing to families in Bavarian farmhouses where the human dwelling shares the same building as the barn and cattle stalls. “Children growing up in this space have much less allergy, hay fever and asthma.”

“We know that people born in Asia have a lower risk of developing food allergy yet when they migrate to Australia and have children here, these children have three times the risk of Australian children,” Katie Allen says. “We think that in Asia there are some protective factors –possibly because in Asia the food supply is different and people are exposed to more infections and that these things help to kick-start the immune system in early childhood.”

Prescott also believes there could be a connection between the rise in food allergy and the rise in obesity. More research is needed – but childhood obesity increases the risk of asthma and food allergy, according to some studies, and there’s emerging evidence that children of overweight mothers have an increased asthma risk.

Although food allergy is common in childhood, there’s a good chance of outgrowing it, especially allergies to eggs, milk, soy and wheat. The food allergies most likely to stick around for life are allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, seeds and seafood.  Around one in 50 adults in Australia has a food allergy and although most developed it as a child, some – like Katie Allen – developed theirs as an adult.

“One theory is that it occurs when you’re exposed to a food later in life that you’ve never been exposed to before – another is that something ‘resets’ the immune system. In my case I’d become pregnant and in pregnancy there are changes to the immune system to prevent the body from rejecting the baby,” she says. “But I’d also moved to the US and I was exposed to different foods and different microbes and possible different levels of vitamin D which might have been factors,” Allen says.

With no cure for food allergy, the only way to manage it is to stay away from the problem food, keep the EpiPen close – and hope that people who offer you food take your problem seriously.

“I’ve experienced some eye rolling in the past – and someone who served me chopped nuts on ice-cream – and I find myself apologising a lot,” Allen says. “But I think people are becoming more understanding and also more open to asking others if they have any particular food needs. I think it’s up to all of us to make others feel comfortable about declaring if they need to avoid certain foods.”

What if you suspect a food allergy?  

It’s tempting to trawl the internet to self-diagnose a food allergy or other food sensitivity, but a smarter option is to see a doctor, who can refer you to a specialist allergist or hospital allergy clinic.

For more information, see the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy,  allergy.org.au

Make sure that if you are going to work in the childcare setting in Canberra that you have completed the new Provide Emergency First Aid in an Education and Care Setting courrse (HLTAID004). This is now a government requirement for servicing these areas. Contact Canberra First Aid courses for more information. We will make sure to teach you all about anaphylaxis and allergies.

March 16, 2015 – 12:48Pm , written by Natalie Reilly and sourced from SMH.com.au

Imagine waking up from a blackout. You don’t know how long you’ve been out. It could be two days or it could be 15 years.

You don’t know where you are. You only know something horrible has occurred because everybody is hovering over you, speaking in slow, deliberate, loud tones, as if you’re a three-year-old without her hearing aid.

Waves of nausea crash through your body. You’d love to get up but you can’t. You feel as if you’ve just completed a marathon on a 35 degree day, complete with migraine. A paramedic snakes through and asks you your name. You tell him while he checks your blood pressure.

“What year is it?”

“Don’t patronise me!” you think, before replying “It’s … It’s …”

This is what it’s like to have a seizure.

Like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a person is more likely to experience their firstseizure in late adolescence. Nobody knows why, exactly. It has something to do with brain growth and stress. And lack of sleep, which is the epileptic’s worst nightmare.

I was 18 when I had my first “tonic-clonic” seizure. It came with no warning. I had been trying to complete a university assignment at home in my room after 1am. I remember staring at the question. The next thing I knew my parents were standing over me, telling me I was “OK”, looking like they’d just seen my ghost. I was taken to hospital for observation. This is where the loud, patronising talk reaches its peak. Every ten minutes a medical professional swipes back the curtain and says:

“Now NATALIE I’M JUST GOING TO GET YOU TO SIT UP FOR ME AND TELL ME THE NAME OF THE PRIME MINISTER, YOUR AGE AND YOUR BIRTH DATE, OK?”

I was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed me with “mild epilepsy”. He put me on a bucket-load of medication that saw me gain over 25 kilograms and filled me with a fatigue so crushing I could barely walk. Yeah, I went off the medication. Surprise! I had another one. And then another, this time on a plane on my way to Italy. I remember the Italian airline steward reassuring himself by reassuring me I was “OK, Bella?” The English woman sitting next to me, who turned out to be – GET THIS – a neurologist specialising in epilepsy, waved him off.

I changed medication and stuck to it but I remained in denial (who wants to think aboutdeath in their 20s?) and still partied as heavily as my peers. I was on the phone to my best friend Jess in 2005 after one such party when I started repeating sentences. This is not unusual; I often do this for dramatic emphasis. So it wasn’t until Jess heard a big ‘Thwump’ and gargling noises that she hung up and called an ambulance.

The most dramatic was the one I had at work. It’s not as embarrassing as it sounds, especially because – bonus! – I didn’t wet myself. I was in the middle of telling my boss (and dear friend) a story when I moved my neck like something out of The Exorcist and dropped to the floor. “Well, this is new” she said, anticipating further theatrics. Again, this is what happens when you’re already the type of person who frequently performs contemporary dance moves at work. But her amusement soon turned to terror when she saw me, you know, ahmm… jerking and foaming at the mouth.

Imagine all the people who are normally filled with lukewarm contempt for your writing standing over you, pretending they’re now concerned for your welfare. Oh, not all of them. Some were straight-up scared shitless. As if watching someone literally ‘throw a fit’ isn’t enough, after an episode my pupils dilate to the size of a vampire’s.

I barely noticed because I’d entered the ‘postictal state‘. It lasts for roughly half an hour and is marked by aggression, confusion and an overall Memento feeling, that is to say you forget everything anyone says to you the second after they say it. This means the sentence “You’re OK, Nat, you just had a fit” is said approximately 100 times. It’s at this point an epileptic will act like a loose cannon, insulting everyone. So, um, yeah, I said a few things. Fortunately for me, I’m often saying things I shouldn’t, so staff members took it in their stride. That is, until I returned to work a week later.

“Are you Okaaaay?” people who could make eye-contact asked me, sotto voce.

See, this is why everyone hates pity. Because pity is just social discomfort in Spanx. Many staff members tried their best but most could not even say “seizure”, preferring instead to mime what looked like a knitting motion with their hands. One very senior female member of staff patted my arm with all the ease and warmth of a robot.

These days I’m fully medicated, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. Like, right now in this cafe. I was seated underneath a ceiling fan but had to move because it was spinning below a light. Yah, the ‘strobe effect’.

So, overall I’m fine. Except for the synesthesia and the night terrors. But hey, one article at a time, right? A girl’s gotta make a living.

Make sure you book into a Canberra Childcare First Aid Course (HLTAID004) if you plan on running your own childcare facility at home or working in a care setting. We will provide information on how to treat seizures and all other first aid situations.

One of the biggest things slowing down the ambulance services: Inappropriate emergency calls placed by the public. Photo: Quentin Jones

The humble apology from NSW Ambulance and the Health Minister, following the death of an 18-month boy from Tregear who slipped into cardiac arrest while waiting for an ambulance on September 9, was welcome. And although an overloaded system may not have contributed to this particular tragedy, demand remains the greatest problem affecting ambulance response times.

While people are quick to blame ambulance services when things go wrong, one of the biggest factors slowing down the system is the enormous number of inappropriate emergency calls placed by the public. And it is doubtful one will ever hear an apology from a patient who has phoned 000 for a mild case of food poisoning, man-flu or a broken fingernail.

During the recent bushfires in NSW, emergency calls for ambulances were the lowest they had been for a long time. Response times improved because more ambulances were available for critical emergencies. It is a phenomenon seen during previous major incidents, as people assume that ambulances must be too busy to attend less serious health complaints. As a result, people make their own way to hospital. Or they see their local doctor or wait at home and discover their symptoms miraculously resolve. This proves, to some extent, a difference between ”needing” an ambulance because there’s no other way, and ”wanting” one because the service is there.

Most people are unaware that even without natural disasters or major incidents ambulance services are under enormous pressure daily. And the majority of emergency calls are not for emergencies at all. If only callers had the same attitude to calling ambulances during normal weekdays as they do when they know there’s a disaster happening, demand would go down, response times improve and more lives would be saved.

Interestingly, ambulance services face less system abuse in rural areas. Why? Because, beyond the bush culture of stoicism, comes an awareness of the valuable resource that is the only ambulance in town. The community values and respects this and reserves using ambulances for only the most serious of illnesses and injuries.

In metropolitan environments people assume unlimited resources. But there is no such thing. Over the past 30 years there has not been a substantial increase in emergency ambulances in proportion to the population. Of course, there have been changes in service delivery, such as the establishment of a separate patient transport wing that frees up paramedic ambulances. But these measures are often only as effective as the public allows them to be.

There are many contributors to the problem of inappropriate emergency calls. General practitioners are not doing as many house visits as they once did, and many are unwilling to respond after hours. The public also know that ambulances are packed with high-tech diagnostic tools and medication that GPs don’t have. One assumption many people make is that they will be seen to quicker if they arrive at hospital by ambulance. This is not the way it works. All patients are coded by the same triage system. If your condition is considered low acuity, you are likely to end up in the waiting room where time to see a doctor may well exceed that of suburban medical centres.

NSW Ambulance does a remarkable job considering the demands placed on its limited resources. Occasionally a tragedy occurs which hopefully leads to an improvement in the system. In these moments it is easy to lay all responsibility on the ambulance service. But we, the public, are also responsible. Perhaps we should take another look at what we would call an ambulance for. We all have a role to play in improving the function of our emergency services and saving lives.

Benjamin Gilmour is author of the book Paramedico – Around the World by Ambulance(HarperCollins). www.paramedico.com.au

Make sure you know the right times to call 000. Get the right first aid training at a canberra first aid course today. Call Ryan on 0449746357.

http://www.acecqa.gov.au/first-aid-qualifications-and-training

Under the Education and Care Services National Law ACECQA must publish a list of approved first aid qualifications, anaphylaxis management training and emergency asthma management training.

For the purposes of the Law, the ‘qualifications’ on the list are either national or state accredited units of competency.

The list of approved first aid qualifications, anaphylaxis management training and emergency asthma management training replaces the state and territory government first aid requirements for educators from 1 January 2012.

If you have completed training and want to know if it is on ACECQA’s approved list, you will need to know the name of the training course and its code or other unique identifier. This information will appear on the certificate or transcript you received when you successfully completed the training.

The National Regulations include some transitional provisions to give services time to meet the requirements.

The National Regulations also outline the mandatory requirements for services in relation to these qualifications. Further information relating to First Aid Qualifications, Anaphylaxis Management Training and Asthma Management Training can be found in regulation 136 Part 4.4 – Staffing arrangements, Division 6 – First aid qualifications.

Below is a summary of the different requirements for centre-based, school-based and family day care services.

Centre-based services – regulation 136(1)

The approved provider of a centre-based service must ensure that the following persons are in attendance at any place where children are being educated and cared for by the service, and immediately available in an emergency, at all times that children are being educated and cared for by the service:

(a) at least one educator who holds a current approved first aid qualification

(b) at least one educator who has undertaken current approved anaphylaxis management training

(c) at least one educator who has undertaken current approved emergency asthma management training.

Services must have staff with current approved qualifications on duty at all times and immediately available in an emergency. One staff member may hold one or more of the qualifications.

Premises on school site – regulation 136(2)

If children are being educated and cared for at service premises on the site of a school, suitably qualified staff must be in attendance at the school site and immediately available in an emergency.

Services must have staff with current approved qualifications on duty at all times and immediately available in an emergency. One staff member may hold one or more of the qualifications.

Family day care – regulation 136(3)

The approved provider of a family day care service must ensure that each family day care educator and family day care educator assistant engaged by or registered with the service:

(a) holds a current approved first aid qualification; and

(b) has undertaken current approved anaphylaxis management training; and

(c) has undertaken current approved emergency asthma management training.

Each family day care educator and educator assistant, must hold all three qualifications.

Notes for registered training organisations

For the purposes of the National Law, the ‘qualifications’ on this list are either national or state accredited units of competency.

Registered training organisations do not need to apply for additional ‘approved provider’ status with ACECQA, nor do they require separate approval for specific courses.

– See more at: http://www.acecqa.gov.au/first-aid-qualifications-and-training#sthash.05SbrDr9.dpuf

Taken From SMH on February 12, 2015, Hannah Paine

It was a damp day last April, and Steve O’Neill described himself as “on a mission” to clean the gutters around his Balgowlah home.

“I had my hand reached up high, cleaning the leaves and I didn’t have gloves on. I felt something bite one of fingers on my right hand,” he said.

Immediately, Mr O’Neill pulled his hand from the gutter, and saw what looked like a spider fall to the ground. Alarmed and in immense pain, he ran inside and called his wife Natasha, who phoned triple-0.

Steve O’Neill was bitten by a spider reaching into his guttering.

“I was panicking, my heart rate was up and I was thinking ‘God what is going to happen next if this is a nasty bite what is going to happen to me,'” said Mr O’Neill.

With  a suspected funnel-web spider bite, he was taken to Manly hospital by ambulance and was placed under observation and blood tests were taken.

According to NSW Ambulance, 2015 has already seen a spike in spider bites.

A female funnel-web spider, one of the world’s most venomous, creeps out of its hole at night. Photo: Nick Moir

In January, 98 cases were attended by paramedics in NSW, with four so far this February. For 2014, paramedics were called out to 319 incidents in Sydney with the majority in Sydney’s west, followed by the north and south-west regions.

Forty-three of those incidents were involved Australia’s deadliest spider, the funnel web.

Fortunately for Mr O’Neill, no  venom was found in his system, and he counts himself lucky that whatever spider it was did not bite deep enough.

“I was worried because I didn’t know what it was, and you think of spiders [bites] how it runs through the blood stream and is it going to affect my heart or anything like that,” he said.

“It was very painful in the finger, it started to swell up [but] it didn’t move beyond my finger or hand it was just a throbbing pain similar to being stung by a wasp or bee, but worse.”

For Mr O’Neill, it’s not an event he will soon forget, and he has a scar to show for it.

“Ironically it didn’t draw any blood, but I can still see on my finger two marks where fangs or whatever it was scraped the skin,” he said.

Mr O’Neill also said that next time he does clean his house gutters, he will take better precautions.

“I do need to get up there pretty soon, but when I do I will be wearing gloves.”

Come and learn about the first aid treatment of funnel web spiders at a Canberra first aid course run at Ainslie Football Club. Our first aid trainers will teach you the correct techniques in case someone has been bitten by a spider.

• SIMON BLACK
• THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
• AUGUST 16, 2013 5:16PM

A FREAK accident has left a 19-year-old man with a metal reinforcement bar embedded in the centre of his forehead at a construction site on the north shore.

The young man, Kieran Dodge, was clearing rubble with an excavator on Tyron road, Linfield when a bar snapped and drove into the cabin.

Construction worker, Kieran, 19, is cut free from the excavator cabin before being transported to Royal North Shore Hospital. Picture: Adam Ward Source: News Limited

“I heard him yelling out ‘help me, help me’,” fellow worker Eric Reddacliff said.
“We all thought he was joking and holding a piece of metal up to his head.”

“When I got closer I realised he had a re-bar (reinforcement bar) stuck dead-centre in his forehead.”

Fire-Rescue, police, ambulance and CareFlight teams were involved in the rescue shortly after 10am.

Emergency services work to stabilise Kieran before he was transported to Royal North Shore Hospital. Pic: Adam Ward Source: News Limited

Mr Dodge was treated by a CareFlight trauma doctor and paramedics as fire officers worked to cut him free.
Mr Reddacliff said the young man was conscious and speaking during the wait for the ambulance.

“He seemed ok,” he said. “I mean, he had a concerned look on his face but what do you expect.”

“This is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen. Just a freak accident.”

Construction worker Kieran was clearing rubble from a work site at Lindfield on Sydney’s north shore when an metal re-inforcement rod smashed through the cabin and into his forehead today. Picture: Adam Ward Source: News Limited

Fire and Rescue NSW station officer Greg Pace said fire fighters had cut the cabin from the excavator before transporting Mr Dodge to Royal North Shore Hospital.
“We were thinking about cutting the bar but the doctor was concerned about the vibrations,” Mr Pace said. “So we took the cabin off and got him out still holding onto it.”

He praised the young man’s bravery.

“He said he was in pain but he didn’t make a peep while we were working,” he said.

Mr Dodge was transported to Royal North Shore Hospital in a stable condition.

Belconnen First Aid Courses, Woden CPR Courses, Gungahlin Asthma and Anaphylaxis Courses, whatever training you need make sure South Canberra First Aid course is thebest course provider you can choose. Our down to earth trainers, our relevant first aid scenarios and competitive quotes are what make us the best in the industry. Our course are conducted out of Ainslie Football Club and Dickson College to service locals in the Canberra. Book into a First Aid, CPR or a Childcare Training course and be ready for any emergency.

www.canberrafirstaid.com or 0449746357

At the National Asthma Council Australia, we know that if you are one of the 7 million Australians with allergy or the 2 million with asthma, you want to know how you could improve the health and wellbeing of you and your family. That’s why we developed the Sensitive Choice® program.

Our Sensitive Choice® blue butterfly symbol is a way of recognising products and services from companies that support asthma and allergy care. Products that carry the blue butterfly may be better choices for people with asthma and allergies.

The Sensitive Choice® program has over 200 products and services carrying the blue butterfly. Through a partnership between the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand and the National Asthma Council Australia, New Zealanders are also able to benefit from this program.

The program is a type of sponsorship program, although approved products and services must satisfy our independent Product Advisory Panel they do no harm and may offer relative benefits to people with asthma or allergies.

If you see the blue butterfly when shopping, stop for a moment and think about your family’s asthma and allergy care.

• Do you know your triggers?
• Are you taking steps to reduce your exposure to your triggers?
• Have you had an asthma and allergy review with your doctor recently?
• Do you follow your asthma or allergy action plan?

Canberra First Aid and Training will take you through how to treat an Asthma attack and help someone breathe well again. Complete a first aid course in Canberra as soon as possible so you are up to date and prepared to save someones life.

Sign up to a Canberra First Aid Course today.

Updated Mon 30 Sep 2013, 2:07pm AEST

 Fire authorities in New South Wales are warning of a long, hot summer, with 1.3 million households in the state classified as “high-risk” this bushfire season.

The official bushfire period starts tomorrow, but there have already been more than 1,000 fires in the past month alone.

At the moment there are 55 bushfires around the state, with 24 of them still out of control.

“That’s around us. It’s not around the corner, it’s right around us now,” Emergency Services Minister Mike Gallacher said this morning at the Rural Fire Service’s headquarters in Sydney.

RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons is warning against taking a laid back attitude to bushfire plans, saying people should write their plans down.

“She’ll be right mate just isn’t good enough,” Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.

“The Bureau of Meteorology have over the last six weeks or so dramatically revised the forecast as we head into the next three months leading into summer.

“We’re looking at above normal conditions in terms of temperatures and indeed a deficit of moisture, an absence of rainfall, across much of NSW.

“You’ve got the indicators that say we’re going to be in for a very difficult and challenging fire season.”

He says the RFS has been focusing on hazard reduction burns around Yass, Coonabarabran and the Shoalhaven area, the worst effected places in January when 50 homes were lost to bushfires.

Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins says serious fires recently at Barrenjoey and Winmalee show the blaze risk is not only a rural problem.

“People in suburbia need to know they can be impacted by bushfires. Now is the time to act,” Commissioner Mullins said.

He has singled out residents in areas including the Blue Mountains, Lane Cove, Warringah and Sutherland as needing bushfire plans.

“What this season is shaping up to so far is not only a reminder of last season in country and regional areas, but of course the fire risk is at the door of the Sydney Metropolitan Area,” Mr Gallacher said.

Its going to be a long hot summer in Oz this year. Canberra First Aid has the motto ‘Be prepared. Save a Life” This not only relates to first aid in Canberra but those hot summer days bringing fires.

RICH KINSEY COLUMN: A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID

By admin / 19 October 2013 / Canberra First AId, Emergency, First Aid, Training / fNo Comments

If someone you know were having a rough time in life, would you have the courage to ask them if they were thinking about killing him or herself? Is it worth that nervous feeling in your gut to just ask the question? Are you worried that asking the question could potentially put the idea in a friend or loved one’s head?It will not put the idea in their head, and you must ask the question. Asking that tough question could save the life of a friend or loved one.

A week ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a class sponsored by the Ann Arbor Police Department Chaplains entitled “Mental Health First Aid.” The class was taught by Police Chaplain Don DesNoyers, who did an excellent job. Chaplain DesNoyers gave us a fresh perspective on mental illness and an action plan to help those in crisis.

Chaplain DesNoyers first gave us some staggering statistics about mental illness. Did you know a quarter of us have a diagnosable mental illness? Our textbook, “Mental Health First Aid USA,” also cited “a national survey of Americans found 19.6 percent of adults (18 or older) experienced a mental disorder in any one year.” That is huge and yet the stigma of mental illness pervades our society. That stigma attached to mental illness is the reason those afflicted do not seek the professional help they need.

In the last hour or so of the class Chaplain DesNoyers gave a good example. If a neighbor or friend was suddenly stricken with serious debilitating medical ailment—say they were suddenly paralyzed or had to take time off work for cancer treatment—would it not be natural to lend them a hand. Perhaps you would make them a casserole, mow their lawn or, as winter is just around the corner, shovel their walk for them.

If that same neighbor was diagnosed with a debilitating mental illness would you do the same thing or would you warn the kids to stay away from the crazy guy or gal next door?

In my own chosen profession there is a huge stigma attached to mental illness in our ranks. First of all, rest assured before they hand you a badge and gun to go forth and keep the community safe, you are investigated and psychologically evaluated to make sure you are mentally stable.

After that there really was not much after care until recent years when departments realized that some critical incident stress debriefings were beneficial for some of the many terrible things first responders encounter. These proactive programs have helped first responders, combat veterans and citizens who have been faced with tragedy and trauma.

When I started in police work 1982, I remember being told to be careful because cops are six times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed in the line of duty. Suicide in police work is sometimes referred to as “cop’s disease.” My non-scientific, anecdotal experience of cops I have known throughout the years, who have died by either means, is pretty close to that 6:1 ratio I was given so long ago.

The advice given us rookies was to exercise more, drink alcohol less and seek professional help only if you really need it. Seeking professional help — which is really the healthy and most beneficial thing — could end your career however or at least impair any upward or lateral mobility in the field of law enforcement.

In police work and the world in general, education is the key to removing the stigma attached to mental illness. The more we as a population understand that mental illness is just merely another illness which happens to affect the mind, the more we can both compassionately and effectively deal the problem.

Chaplain DesNoyers gave another example. Just as one afflicted with cardiovascular disease can die from a heart attack, one with a mental disorder can die—by suicide—from a “brain attack.”

What can we do in a psychological crisis to avoid tragedy? First and foremost provide the person afflicted with HOPE.

Just as in standard first aid, mental health first aid deals with the most life-threatening conditions and attempts to stabilize the patient until professional medical or mental health providers can take over.

Recall the “action plan” for standard first aid, to treat the most life threatening conditions is A-B-C: Airway, Breathing and Circulation.

The action plan for mental health first aid is A-L-G-E-E.

The “A” stands for “Assess for risk of suicide or harm.” This is where you must ask if a person is thinking of killing or hurting themselves or others. If so, what steps have they taken to do this—e.g purchased a gun, cut themselves or taken pills. You must also ascertain where the person is located and then CALL 9-1-1 and get the police responding right away.

The “L” stands for “Listen non-judgmentally” or, as Mr. DesNoyers so succinctly put it, “Shut up and listen” to the person in crisis. Listen, do not provide immediate simple answers, but instead try to understand their perspective.

The “G” stands for “Give reassurance and information.” Here you are helping the person realize they are not alone and their problem can be managed or even overcome. You give the person hope.

The first “E” stands for “Encourage appropriate professional help.” Give the person referrals in the form or telephone numbers or other sources of contact. You can always give them the United Way 2-1-1 Information Line that can give the person in need the proper agency and telephone number to call.

The “professionals” may include primary care physicians, mental health professionals, certified peer counselors, psychologists or psychiatrists. The first aid provider must understand that the person may not call immediately, but the person in crisis is at least given the “tools” if and or when they decide to get professional help.

The last “E” stands for “Encourage self-help and other support strategies.” This is encouragement designed to get the person to look into appropriate coping mechanisms like exercise, relaxation therapy or read about self-help options in published materials.

Whether you can remember the ALGEE acronym or not, just remember if you think someone is about to hurt or kill themselves or others call 9-1-1 and get them assistance right away.

If you are having thoughts of suicide or just think the world is closing in on you and there is no hope, please call someone. Whether it is 9-1-1, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-273-8255 or a trusted family member or friend, please reach out.

Thanks to the Ann Arbor Police Department, the Chaplains and especially Don — that was outstanding training. If you are interested in attending a Mental Health First Aid class contact Chaplain Don DesNoyers at: [email protected]

Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now writes his “Semper Cop” column about crime and safety for The Ann Arbor News.

A very interesting article from America. Canberra First Aid and Training although focusing on first aid would like to acknowledge that there is becoming a rapid growth in mental health problems in Australia. Please ask your friends and family how they are going and are they ok from time to time.

First Aid training in Canberra in the future will have a larger emphasis on mental health and wellbeing in the future so sign up to a course today in Canberra with Ryan and his great staff.