Scared to help?
If you witness an accident or see someone taken ill, what’s your first reaction?
Will you avert your eyes and carry on past?
Stand back and wait for somebody else to make a move, because you don’t feel confident?
Pick up your phone and call 999 and hope someone will come along to help?
View things with suspicion, because it may be a scam to steal or attack you?
Worry you may be sued if you help and something goes wrong?
Or do you just roll up your sleeves and confidently do something positive to help?
Our first consideration must always be, for our own safety and that of any bystanders.
What’s happened is it an accident or some mendacious scam.
Will you put yourself at risk of injury if you attempt to help.
These are just some of the questions you ask yourself and the assessment you must make.
Any first aid instructor will tell you, the first thing you must do is check for danger to yourself and others.
The casualty:
Maybe they’re lying in a busy road?
Holding on to an electrical appliance?
Surrounded by an unidentifiable liquid?
In an unstable building with debris hanging above them or collapsed floors?
Or do they have a knife sticking out of their chest?
Whether you favour walking past or have the empathetic urge to rush to help, are polar opposites, but both are natural human reactions to a situation.
If the casualty is conscious, always ask them first if they want your help and if they decline don’t force them, but if their unconscious do what you can.
The scriptures of 2000 years ago relate the story first, and in the two millennia, nothing has changed.
Your worry may be that in these highly litigious times, you could be sued, if something goes wrong.
In the UK, the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism (SARAH) Bill, known as the Good Samaritan’s Act, protects anyone trying to help, as long as they believe they’re doing something for “the benefit of society”.
Finally, as long as what you attempt is in good faith, with the intention to help, there really is no reason to be scared to help
CPR First Aid Training has a course suitable for your needs, whether First Aid at Work, for the full qualification or Basic Life support skills, we want you to have the confidence to act in an emergency – Book here