Mental Preparedness

We have had discussions on various physical preparations, equipment preparations etc. An area that I see just as important is how well are we /you prepared mentally, and what can you do to improve? Can you think on your feet ? I am specifically talking about an unexpected emergency event, be it a natural, or man made event.
Our members that live way out yonder have found coping mechanisms for their daily struggles. Our LEO and Emergency Services members (past and present) obviously deal with or have dealt with the chaos of emergency situations on an almost daily basis. Military members are taught drills or have experienced the nightmare of combat.
For an inexperienced person, possibly your significant other, or older child, what would you suggest to give them a “taste” of functioning under stress?
My first thought would be volunteering with your local Fire Department and or Emergency Medical Service (Rescue, First Aid, Ambulance etc). My reasoning is, that they would learn team work, potentially valuable skills, and possibly most importantly confidence under stress (before they have to do it for real with their family). I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Good post Pal. This is something that my wife and I have undertaken recently. Tomorrow morning is our final CERT class, with our county wide drill two weeks later. Quite honestly, there was not too much new information in the class for me. Some though, and refreshers are always a good idea. For my wife however, it was an eye opener. They do introduce you to valuable skills in the course. I can really see a maturation of some of my classmates. We plan on continuing our education with additional classes and seminars.

Actually I don't really know and that's kinda scary. As a parent I want to do my best to prepare my children for the world, but for this I don't know. I will encourage them to join the Military for some of the reasons you stated, but beyond that I'm not sure.

That's a good thread. Maybe setting up a situation where they experience what it is like to be lost? That tends to bring up feelings of panic, but not sure how you'd set up a situation where the person really does feel lost but isn't.
Joining a search and rescue group would be good.

One thing that I've been wondering about is how to prepare for an emergency situation where you have received some sort of injury that doesn't let you think clearly (hypothermia, blow to the head, low blood sugar, severe loss of blood etc). When you're on your own and dependent on your wits, you'll have a real problem. Maybe a written down checklist on what to do would help...I don't know.

My main thought was to put them under stress and have them making decisions. Some people freeze, some go ballistic, and most learn from it and "the next time" they usually cope better. I always tried to get my new troops into a stress training scenario to allow them to fail and then show them what they may have done differently, and the next time around almost all showed improvement and time permitting keppt doing it. The idea being make mistakes when no one would get hurt.
I like the way Crash is going about it, exposing spouse in an exercise type situation, is a good introduction to the chaos.

The most eye opening part of the class for those with no prior training was Disaster Triage. At the drills they get pretty involved with their moulage kits. Some of us with prior training have already been tapped to be the first round of victims.

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

The most eye opening part of the class for those with no prior training was Disaster Triage. At the drills they get pretty involved with their moulage kits. Some of us with prior training have already been tapped to be the first round of victims.

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That moulage can be very realistic, and the "acting of the victims" does a great job for the inexperienced folks.

I turly think that it depends on the person that you want to learn good mental strenght and how far you are willing to go to "help" them learn
for example if you have a willing to learn type of person than it will be easy for you to help them all you need is ideas as it has been said already Vouluntering FD. search and rescue. a little "trip" w/ some preplanned disasters. the main thing is is expeireance. you have to have an expiereance.
its vital.
noe onthe other hand like we have pepole in are lives who we wished had this but are unwillg to try to have any expierances they need alittle more help. your spouse you friend your child.
and now its up to you to see how willing you are to " help" them some may be easyier than others for exmp. my mom helped my dad by booking a family vaction for us to the Cumberland islands and from that expeiriance he was made a little more willing to go Camping and then she introduced camping more regularly and conviently "forgot" little things and that went on and has helped him to have mental strenght a little more each time.
now if its a child you probably have to be a little more stronger misson trips w/ churchs are good at preparing young minds for hardship. if you dont like churches or you cant get the child to go along stick him in the bush and wacth from a distance- a bit of Jamaican child rearing techniques- harsh but belive me it works just try to give them some knowlage b4 hand
Me personaly i have had to live in belize to learn to go thru hardship b/c thats about all they have down here to offer [ unless your a tourist]
I have my wife who is not willing to learn the type of mental strenght need for the bush and i have faild as a husband b.c i cant take my own advice and have the intestinal fortitude to face her and say "Honey we are going camping"

Each family is different and each situation will not be the same but its our responsibility to take care of the ones we love in every aspect that we possibly can

just some thoughts

A couple of other threads on the subject.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...l+preparedness

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...l+preparedness

I think the make up of the person is the primary driver here and I don't know that any of us can alter who or what we are. Some folks are just laid back and are able to think through and/or deal with anything that comes their way. Others loose control of just about everything including bodily functions. I don't know how you change that or even if you can. Those of you that have been in the military, particularly in combat, probably understand this better than anyone. All of you go through tons of training and when push comes to shove some perform well and others can't perform. It's just part of who we are.

Having said that, I'm been granted the ability to not panic. I've not been in combat but I have had one or two hair raising moments and I was pretty calm and able to think through what I needed to do. My wife is an RN and has about the same makeup. It takes a lot to rattle her.

I think everything you listed is good stuff and there are no doubt real time benefits from the training. Both in terms of skills learned and unit cohesion. I'm not certain it impacts who you are, though. And I don't know of anything that will let you learn who you are except the real thing.

I look forward to hearing YOUR thoughts.

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Originally Posted by Rick

A couple of other threads on the subject.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...l+preparedness

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...l+preparedness

I think the make up of the person is the primary driver here and I don't know that any of us can alter who or what we are. Some folks are just laid back and are able to think through and/or deal with anything that comes their way. Others loose control of just about everything including bodily functions. I don't know how you change that or even if you can. Those of you that have been in the military, particularly in combat, probably understand this better than anyone. All of you go through tons of training and when push comes to shove some perform well and others can't perform. It's just part of who we are.

Having said that, I'm been granted the ability to not panic. I've not been in combat but I have had one or two hair raising moments and I was pretty calm and able to think through what I needed to do. My wife is an RN and has about the same makeup. It takes a lot to rattle her.

I think everything you listed is good stuff and there are no doubt real time benefits from the training. Both in terms of skills learned and unit cohesion. I'm not certain it impacts who you are, though. And I don't know of anything that will let you learn who you are except the real thing.

I look forward to hearing YOUR thoughts.

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I pretty much agree with you, training and experience will not always change a person. I think what I am trying to say is with experience that includes stress, at accident scenes for example, a person would get an idea how they will react, maybe good or bad, but they feel the sensation. That "mind shift" (I think that is a good way to express it) that a person goes through when they are reacting to a scary, unexpected or dangerous situation. By doing it several times, repeatedly or however often, maybe we can cut the learning curve down a little.
As far as training goes, I really do think it does have an impact on who you are. I have seen timid young men and women become more confident in their general demeanor because they have mastered their training. what this does is makes them much less hesitant to take action than they were before. And conversely I have seen cocky men and women crushed by their inability to master their training.

All good points. Familiarity also breeds confidence it would seem. Muscle memory is probably at play as well taking some of the emotion out of it. I like it. Good post.

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Originally Posted by Rick

All good points. Familiarity also breeds confidence it would seem. Muscle memory is probably at play as well taking some of the emotion out of it. I like it. Good post.

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IMHO, confidence (not arrogance) is a very valuable thing to have. Makes you willing to try, as opposed to giving up.

Hey Crash,
During your CERT class did they speak to the topic of your own personal survival and survival kits? Or did they just discuss how to help others after an emergency? The reason I ask is CORE, the Okland version of CERT appears to be looking at only having spare bodies to help emergency Services and they will take who ever survives but not try to increase the survival rate.

One of the things that was really emphasized was personal safety. Not so much a focus on personal survival kits - although we did discuss it. The rationale is to not compound the problem by becoming a victim - which did branch off into personal survival and preparedness. Mexico City and Oklahoma City were examples that were given - Mexico City 100 would be rescuers were killed, and OK City 1 that ignored the warnings of other rescuers.

Mental preparedness is #1 in my traing system which is A.S.K (Attitude, Skills Kit).
Those of you who I sent my handout to have seen this in there.

Yes, I guess the organization and implementation of "boot camp" in the military, or things like "High Performance Organization Training" in the business world put the trainee in the situation where they are tired, hungry (or other physical and mental stressors), barraged with conflicting information where they have to do a task or make a decision, then learning from the decision they made so they can do it better the next time is not a bad model for "learning by doing" and getting the attitudes right. Getting mental focus is what all of this enhanced performance is all about, I guess. My Football Coach used to call it "getting your head in the game".

I'd also like to add something to mental preparedness and that's physical.
Not in the sense that most think of which is important.
I am talking about a "third leg of a three-legged stool" if you will.
Which is keeping all your check-ups current, getting rid of that spare tire, no smoking, moderate drinking and taking care of your choppers.
No amount of mental fortitude, gear and survival skills are going to help you
if you don't take care of your health starting now.
I know it's a boooooring topic and I am not telling you anything you don't already know whether you practice it or not.
It's just worth thinking about it in this context.

I couldn't agree more, Benesse. (well, except for the spare tire thing). Proper, ongoing hygiene and understanding your health numbers (cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, Blood Pressure, etc) as well as good dental care are important precursors to survival. If you go into a "situation" in bad shape, your odds of coming out of it go down markedly.

I agreewith all. One little trick I use when stuff is going into the crapper is to imaine this song, has always brought me out of a funk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5IIXeR5OUI

i often place myself in situations like bad weather, extreem cold, excessive heat, physical strain and others to test my mental preparedness for the worst...
when done in a controled enviroment, you (I) can back out and change tactics to suit the problem. by doing so we can remedy ourselves to know what to do and how to cope with the mental rigors. personal safty is also understood.
throw in some "uncontroled" exp. and the problem of mental preparedness is more conditioned.
like crash implied, talking about it isnt enough, a person has to condition themselves.. the experiences are where the preparedness comes from