I wrote in Recognising a Crisis Part 1 about some of the ways we prevent ourselves from processing disastrous information, this time I’m going to take a step back in time to the moment an emergency begins.
You’ll have been in a building when the fire alarm goes off…what’s everyone’s initial reaction? A test, a prank, a short-circuit. If someone collapses in public, or starts choking at a restaurant maybe, the usual first assumption is that they’re larking around. Most first responders will have had the experience, multiple times, of being met at the scene of an emergency by someone wringing their hands and repeating ,”I didn’t realise it was real.” Of course, while dealing with their guilt for being human they are now delaying you getting on with your job, but that’s a whole ‘nother article. Continue reading “Recognising a Crisis Part 2”