If you have parents or grandparents who live far away, you may be worried about the fact that you can’t help them with daily tasks. Luckily, there are many ways to help your senior loved one maintain a great quality of life, even if you can’t be there yourself to provide hands-on care. Read on for resources that can help the elderly in everyday life.
Find Tools to Help Your Senior Loved One with Important Financial Decisions
Finances are often a primary concern for persons in retirement. Make sure your parents or grandparents are managing their money wisely with some helpful tools.
Your senior loved one may want to sell their house to cover the move to a nursing home. Use the RedFin calculator to figure out what they’ll make if they sell.
Make sure they have the essential estate planning paperwork done.
Provide practical tips to help them save in retirement, like downsizing.
Leverage Technology to Help Your Loved One Navigate Everyday Challenges
Technology can make life easier and more enjoyable for seniors in many ways.
Get them a senior-friendly cell phone to stay connected.
Provide them with a smart assistant so they can do things like adjusting lighting and music hands-free.
Invest in a medical alert system with fall detection to bring you both peace of mind.
Find innovative ways to connect from afar, like virtual game nights.
Connect with Third-Party Providers to Ensure Your Loved One’s Needs Are Met
When you can’t provide hands-on help yourself, knowing there are others nearby to assist can bring you and your parents or grandparents peace of mind.
Find a senior-specific transportation service to help them get to appointments.
If cooking is a hassle, get a meal delivery service for them.
For seniors who need more hands-on support, get a caregiver.
If they are struggling with mental health issues, connect them to a virtual wellness practitioner. PDX Local offers a roundup.
Living far away from your senior loved one can be emotionally and practically challenging. However, there are many resources and tools to help you care for them from afar. Let the above guide inspire you.
Your outfits are great. What gave you the inspiration?
Our spacesuits are just average clothes on our planet, Issia.
I felt that by sharing our customs, I could further inspire our listeners. Silver is transcendent!
And we’ve been heavily influenced by David Bowie, Bjork, T-Rex, Prince and Devo. Hence, outifts.??
How long have you been making music, and how would you describe your creative evolution?
I grew up going to a German Polka Club every week. So I was dancing to waltzes and polkas for most of my adolescence. I didn’t start to work fanatically with music until my thirties.
Jo, however, has been singing since the crib. Legend has it she learned how to escape her cradle so she could re-load the stack of records.
Our creative process usually starts with a pad or synth progression just to get things rolling. I send that to Jo and she creates a melodic and lyrical story based on the mood. We work together to shape it into a song often with at least 15 iterations until we get it right.
I noticed you list both a Priestess and Scientist on your website. Do you believe it is possible to harmonize spirituality and rational knowledge in our current era of information overload? Can music play a role?
Yes! Music is a perfect example. There is a concept that science and spirituality are separate but in fact, they are the same. Look at Kirk and Spock! ? Whether the technology is Bach or today’s software, music inherently blends math and spirituality. To be more accurate, music IS the math of spirituality. On our planet, we’re able to heal disease with music. It’s a wondrous place!
What is the hardest thing about making music in quarantine?
There were so many challenges this year! Where to start…It was hard being separated from each other. I went from having weekly rehearsals to having to work remotely with The Priestess. We did lots of Zoom meetings. I think the limitations pushed us to grow our online fanbase and of course, we had to grow emotionally.
Your new single is called “I Won’t Dance for You.” Do you think music venues and dance clubs will be able to recover in Portland over the next year, or will it take longer for the scene to recover?
I love going to see live music and I so hope it recovers. Live music is so magical! Transformational. So I hope so and soooooon. I love to watch the people dance! It’s sad to see some of favorite venues closed. I’m still sad that La Luna and Satiricon closed. Some places are holding on like the Alberta Rose—and we can support them now. Here is the link: https://shopalbertarose.square.site
If you had to choose, would you rather share a rocket ship with Ziggy Stardust, Barbarella, or Sun Ra?
So hard to choose! All great options. But Barbarella because there might be a hot tub and shag carpet!
Feeling hesitant to head back to your frontline job in 2021? You’re not alone! In fact, Oregon employers in restaurant, lodging, and other customer-facing industries are facing unprecedented hiring challenges in the wake of the pandemic.
If you’re ready to start working again but don’t feel safe returning to a frontline job, remote work offers a solution. However, there are a few things Oregonians should know as they prepare to go remote.
First up, your rights as a worker in Oregon.
Have questions about your rights during the pandemic? Learn how to handle common employment scenarios during COVID-19, including what to do if you’re being asked to work in unsafe conditions.
Oregonians should also understand their rights as a remote employee, such as entitlement to breaks and overtime pay.
S. veterans who qualify for Protected Veteran Status have additional rights under the law.
Employee misclassification is a major problem in the remote workforce. Learn what distinguishes employees from independent contractors and what to do if you believe you’ve been misclassified.
Wondering the best way to start working from home? Try one of these strategies for going remote.
While some companies are sticking with remote work, others are calling employees back to the office. Read this article for strategies on how to ask your boss for an exception.
Rather than fight an uphill battle with an inflexible employer, some workers are leaving for remote-friendly companies. Many leading employers in Oregon have embraced remote work so you’ll have plenty of options.
Veterans should consider remote civil service jobs. Qualified military veterans receive hiring preference for civil service positions in Oregon.
Workers can also strike out on their own as freelancers. To assess your freelance earning potential, research the going rate in your field — for example, freelance graphic design prices — and factor overhead costs and self-employment taxes to estimate take-home pay.
Are you thinking of starting a home business in Portland? Starting a business offers greater growth potential than freelancing, but there are a few things to know first.
Businesses are required to register with the City of Portland and Multnomah County. Home-based businesses may also need a Home Occupation Permit.
Zoning may limit what type of business you can operate from your home. Homeowners and renters can check their neighborhood’s zoning at portlandmaps.om.
Starting a business after military service? Oregon Veterans Mean Business provides advising, training, and support for veteran business owners. Veterans can access this program at four locations in the state.
Frontline jobs aren’t the only way to get back to work in 2021. Remote work offers safety, flexibility, and opportunity for Oregonians. However, telecommuting has challenges of its own. From knowing your rights as a remote employee to understanding home business regulations, the resources we have shared can help you navigate remote work in Portland.
It’s a shame that everybody in America assumes that if you’re talking about class you are Marxist. It’s a shame that in these United States populism became a dirty word — shades of racism and authoritarianism. I wrote an essay a while back trying to unpack the ways that class dynamics entrench and deepen divides around race and gender.
It was based on my own personal, lived experience. And oh yeah, there was a song that went with it.
The personal is political. That’s an ethos underlying hip hop and also feminism. I remember the day I took my friend for a walk in Forest Park. I don’t know if he’d ever been out that way before, even though he grew up in Portland. We were recording video for a crowdfunding campaign we had planned. Don’t know whatever happened to that footage. It’s probably lost until the end of time.
I don’t know what your street name is by now. You went through at least three in the time that I knew you.
I don’t know how it was for all of y’all, but this is how it was for me.
THAT Summer. Portland, Oregon. First year of the Pandemic.
You know there’s something wrong with your living situation when you’ve had a Go Bag packed since May. And not in case of forest fires.
There were red flags much earlier. But I let my roommate stay on, because I didn’t think I could get through quarantine alone. For almost two months, he was the only person that I saw IRL, other than supermarket cashiers. We were close.
“She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge / She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College”
We watched movies together. He cooked for me.
We were friends. I thought.
I wanted to collaborate creatively. Specifically, I wanted to produce this parody radio play, “POORtland,” about being poor in Portland during the pandemic. I wrote the scripts for two six-minute episodes. The characters were diverse and multiracial. In retrospect the whole concept seems kind of hokey but at the time I thought it might bring people together and jolt middle-class listeners out of their bubble — give them greater empathy for people who’d just had the economic roof cave in on them.
I needed his sound editing skills to turn the scripts into something listenable. We recorded a run-through on my cell phone, but my friend lost interest when I wanted to bring in more voice actors than just the two of us. My Fred Armisen he was not.
That was all before George Floyd’s death. Poverty took a back seat to race then in the national dialogue, as maybe it should. It’s not for me to say.
This is not a victim narrative.
This is not a victim narrative because nothing particularly bad happened to me. Sure, I got groped. Yes, he had angry outbursts. Yes, I slept with my bedroom door locked every night. But I doubt I experienced anything worse during those first few months than your average day as a waitress at Hooter’s.
More to the point, I always had the option to leave. Not great options, sure. No health insurance on the East Coast and it would have been career suicide. But these are better choices than so many women have, who are in so much worse situations. Better choices than a shelter or a tent. There is no comparison.
“If you called your Dad he could stop it all, yeah / Never live like common people”
When it was clear that I wasn’t interested, something shifted between us. Quarantine had eased up by then. He stopped spending time at the apartment. He barely spoke to me. He paid a few hundred dollars each month to help cover expenses. It felt like a more typical roommate dynamic. Except I couldn’t get him to leave.
In the summer of 2020 in Portland calling the cops on a Black man was absolutely not an option. I wasn’t happy with the situation. I knew things would deteriorate when I started dating someone new. But until about a week ago, I didn’t have the cushion to cover staying at a hotel until it all got sorted out. So I smiled and made nice. I figured it was better to stay nominally friends and take his money than force a disruptive confrontation I could not win.
This is not a narrative to absolve or justify my actions.
I had always felt confident that he wouldn’t hit me or rape me. Until a certain Monday morning. He was mad because I went into his room after he left for work and stopped a video from rendering. I thought he just left Internet radio on. The sound was driving me nuts. In the past, this was the kind of conflict that would blow over, but not this time. Later that day, when he held the apartment door shut on me for several minutes so that I couldn’t get inside, the rules changed.
Luckily, no violence. I got a restraining order, but he left of his own accord before it was served. When we came back this Friday afternoon we had no idea what to expect. But he was gone, and he’d cleaned out his stuff. Took my HD video camera with him. As far as I am concerned, he is welcome to it.
Locks have been changed. Police never had to show.
A bunch of people have told me I don’t need to feel sorry for him but it’s not that simple. I caught him lying to me multiple times. I also know that he cared for me. I had Thanksgiving dinner at his mother’s house a year ago. He believed in my business and my artwork, at least early on. Not that many people did. He wanted to be a part of it.
I remember working on my spare laptop (the beat-up Chromebook, all covered with stickers) at a club in Buckman while his friends performed. I felt like Neo in the first scene of Matrix. Wherever we went, it seemed like he always knew some of the musicians performing. I am glad he is out of my life but truly sorry that it had to end this way.
I don’t think he wanted to live here past June or July. He just didn’t have a better option. That’s what poverty does. It erases freedom and control.
“You will never understand / How it feels to live your life / With no meaning or control / And with nowhere left to go”
He worked full time at UPS as a package handler. Made $15 an hour. Only job he could get with a high school diploma. It didn’t go far, and it was murder on his body. He put everything he had into his music and his films.
White guilt is toxic and embarrassing.
I don’t have a lot of it, because I’ve spent much of my life under the poverty line. To some extent that was by choice. When you don’t have children or other dependents, you can go out on a limb financially. You can follow your dreams. You can travel. You can try a new career and see what shakes out.
What’s that you say? Entitlement?
The nonprofit gig I have right now comes solely through a personal connection. The funny thing is, I didn’t meet my friend in boarding school or at my elite Northeastern liberal arts college. I met her at a party thrown by a friend I made at the People’s Pint in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He worked at the local food co-op, as did his roommate. He had a college diploma. His roommate was a high school dropout.
That was more than a decade ago. It sort of boggles the mind.
That town was super unusual because it was a place where you could make $11 an hour and sort of get by. A lot of serious money settled around the Pioneer Valley, precisely because it wasn’t the Hamptons or Northeast Harbor. They could blend. My joke was always that you could go to the local bar and have a millionaire sitting on one side of you and a bum on the other side, and not know which was which. That town was one of the least class-segregated places I have ever encountered. Bohemians ruled the roost. Very different from Boston, or for that matter Portland, Oregon.
I don’t know where my roommate is right now, but the ease with which he was able to move suggests that he will be ok. He was only spending about four nights a week at my place the last two months — wouldn’t tell me where he was the rest of the time.
As a white woman, it’s very hard to know how to engage in the battle for racial justice. We are told all the time that we need to be silent and fall back. That the most valuable contribution we can make is our financial support.
The only problem being, we make only $0.81 for every dollar a man makes. Kind of slims down the margin for altruism.
Over 170 years ago, Abraham Lincoln said the nation could not survive half slave and half free. I would paraphrase to say that our democracy cannot survive with 22 million Americans unemployed and sinking into poverty.
Not a winning ticket.
It feels pompous and callous to move from somebody else’s personal misfortune into pontificating about policy issues, but dammit, this is one of those times when the personal is political. If we’d had affordable housing in Portland, or universal basic income, or a better economic safety net, the situation between us never ever ever would have gotten this bad. We stayed in the red zone for months, because financially no one had a better option.
Power dynamics poison a relationship, each and every time.
Unless of course that’s what you’re into.
It’s weird to think no closure. That someone who was part of my life for most of the past two years is now gone forever. I wanted to stay friends. I wanted to find ways to work together. But short of me deciding I wanted to be with him despite the fits of possessive rage or him finding some other woman to focus his attentions on, it wasn’t going to happen.
Incredibly unlikely that you find this post.
If you do find your way here, I hope you’re doing ok. I hope that video camera serves you well.
Some regrets, but plenty of good times too.
Rose C.
Previously published on Medium on November 21, 2020
If someone you know comes to you and says they are thinking about suicide, don’t do nothing. They make take it as tacit endorsement of their plan.
If you are not comfortable talking to someone directly about the subject, get someone else involved. Refer them to a crisis hotline. Or just say, “I’m not equipped to handle this.”
Are you looking for ways to support a pregnant friend, spouse, or loved one during the coronavirus crisis? These nine resources from PDX Local can help you to be the friend, partner, spouse, or parent your loved one needs during this emotionally challenging — and potentially isolating — time in her life.
How to Support Your Expectant Loved One
Pregnancy isn’t easy in the midst of a pandemic, but there are things you can do to take some of the weight off your pregnant loved one’s shoulders.
First, take the time to understand what your pregnant loved one is going through. Many pregnant and postpartum women are feeling stressed, anxious, and socially isolated as they attempt to protect themselves and their babies from the coronavirus.
Provide your pregnant friend with the support she needs during the pandemic with these five tips from Thrive Global.
Plan a distanced baby shower for your mother-to-be. Several safe alternatives to in-person parties include drive-by baby showers, virtual events, and tailgate showers.
Gift Ideas for Pregnant Mothers
These resources will help you to give your expectant or postpartum loved one everything she needs to navigate pregnancy and motherhood.
Explore the 50 best gifts for pregnant and postpartum mothers, including memory books, holiday ornaments, and handprint photo frames.
Give mom-to-be the gift of a meal subscription box. Several options include Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Martha and Marley Spoon.
Check out the PDX Local Wellness Gift Guide for more than 50 potential gift ideas that can be purchased now or in time for the holidays.
Tips to Save on Pregnancy Gifts
You don’t need to spend a fortune on pregnancy gifts to support an expectant loved one during the pandemic. These three resources can help you save on your purchases and make a few DIY gifts for your pregnant loved one.
Use deal websites to find savings on purchases from clothing retailers like Old Navy. You can find Old Navy cash back offers, promo codes, and coupons — helping you to save on maternity apparel for your pregnant loved one.
Make a DIY gift for your pregnant loved one. DIYS.com offers 20 do-it-yourself gift ideas for expectant mothers, including a two-seam maternity dress, pregnancy journal, brunch basket, and herbal foot soak.
Look for deals on baby essentials while shopping on Amazon.com, visiting thrift stores, or buying from Target.
While preparing for the arrival of a new baby is rarely simple, the pandemic has made pregnancy and childbirth even more difficult for many expectant and new mothers around the world. However, your support can make a world of difference as your loved one prepares for the birth of her new baby, and learns to navigate pregnancy in the midst of a pandemic.
Emily Graham is the creator of Mighty Moms. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family.
I wrote this story at the end of March. Feeling a little bit alarmed that two months later, parts of this nightmare vision appear to be coming true. Ted Wheeler needs to do more to address the looming crisis of poverty and houselessness in this city. A night or two of curfew is not enough. The specter of riots and looting isn’t going anywhere, any time soon.
Imagining July 2020
by Rose C.
Successive waves of closures and reopenings have failed to stop the spread of Coronavirus, but left massive social and economic dislocation in their wake. Area hospitals have tents pitched around them, with patients being treated outside in cots. People are still lining up to get in. Grocery stores operate with armed guards outside the doors, due to periodic flare-ups of looting. Almost every other business is closed.
The National Guard has been called in to maintain order because local law enforcement is overwhelmed. A strict curfew is in place. Houseless people are being arrested and jailed. As a direct consequence, a large tent city of houseless people has grown up inside Forest Park. They are not bad people or criminals. They just don’t have anywhere else to go. Somebody has a weenie roast over a campfire. Sparks fly.
Soon all of Forest Park is in flames. The people camped there perish.
The sky darkens. The air is full of ash. Healthy people and sick people alike are choking, unable to breathe. Death rates skyrocket. The city will never be the same.
How can we avoid this fate? Very simple. Mayor Ted Wheeler needs to raise taxes and institute an emergency fund to house people and restore order. This special organization should have a different jurisdiction and coordinate closely with Multnomah County government. Distrust of the police is at an all-time high right now, but that doesn’t change the importance of the city delivering social services. It only increases the urgency.
We also need to ensure a better mechanism so that houseless / homeless people are able to vote in the fall elections.
As of a Portland, Oregon resident and taxpayer, I would gladly pay more taxes to keep my city safe in a time of need.
Suicide touches all ages and incomes; all racial, ethnic, and religious groups; and in all parts of the country. It is a leading cause of death in the US.
As self-inflicted injuries increase so does the need to prepare for encountering someone who has attempted suicide. As a first-aid provider, you have a vital role in addressing immediate medical needs. You can also provide clarity and support to the victim and other people at the scene.
In 2017, guns were the most common method of death by suicide, accounting for a little more than half of all suicide deaths. The next most common methods were suffocation at 27.72 percent, and poisoning at 13.89 percent.
The following first-aid recommendations are for each of the most common methods of attempted suicide. Each case is unique, and it is essential to tailor your care and support to that person’s needs.
Above all ensure the safety of everyone present and address any serious medical needs first.
A self-inflicted gunshot wound (SIGW)—or any gunshot wound—to the head is correlated with severe disability and a high mortality rate. There is a greater chance of death caused by SIGWs compared to victims injured by gunshot wounds that are delivered in an assault or by accident.
Head trauma from a gunshot wound is fatal in about 90 percent of cases, with many victims dying prior to arriving at the hospital.
About 50 percent of the victims that survive the initial trauma die in the emergency department.
Head trauma from a gunshot wound is the cause of approximately 35 percent of deaths attributed to traumatic brain injury.
Although the head is the most commonly injured body region during a suicide attempt, the following is a general guideline for how to approach a gunshot wound on any area of the body.
Ensure your safety. Ensure the scene is safe and immediately call or have someone else call 9-1-1 or emergency medical services.
Locate the source of the bleeding. Attempt to open or remove the clothing over the wound so you can see it—this will allow you to see injuries that may have been covered or hidden.
Stop the bleeding. Pressure to stop the bleeding is the most critical intervention. If the victim has blood that is coming out of a hole, put steady pressure on it with both hands by pushing down as hard as you can.
Use a dressing (towels, shirts, gauze, etc.). Dressings will help seal the wound and aid in clotting.
Elevate the extremity. If the gunshot wound is above the waist do not elevate the legs to treat for shock (unless the injury is in the arm). Gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen will bleed more rapidly if the legs are elevated, thus making it more difficult for the individual to breathe.
If you can, use a tourniquet.Tourniquets will only work on arm and leg injuries. Using them correctly takes practice, and they should only be used if the bleeding cannot be stopped when direct pressure and elevation are applied immediately and simultaneously or if there is a reason why direct pressure cannot be maintained.
Gunshot wounds to the chest may be sealed with a type of plastic to keep air from being sucked into the wound—this can help prevent a collapsed lung. Remove the seal if shortness of breath worsens after sealing the wound.
Chest compressions in a cardiac arrest caused by hemorrhagic shock from severe blood loss may worsen the situation.
First Aid for Hanging or Suffocation
Self-administered and assisted suicides by asphyxiation—the process of being deprived of oxygen resulting in unconsciousness or death—can be done by several methods. The use of a plastic bag, or suicide bag, is often in conjunction with a flow of an inert gas like nitrogen or helium.
Suicides using a plastic bag with helium were first recorded in the 90s. Since the 2000s, guides on how to use this method have spread on the internet, in print, and on video; and the frequency of suicides by this technique has increased.
Asphyxiation is also present in hanging and strangling. Both hanging and strangling can obstruct blood flow to and from the brain as well as block air flow to and from the lungs.
How to Recognize Suffocation
A constricting article is around the neck
Marks around the victim’s neck where a constriction was removed
Impaired consciousness or unconscious
Grey-blue skin (cyanosis)
Uneven breathing
Prominent veins and congestion of the face
Petechiae – tiny red spots on the face or the whites of the eyes
What to Do in the Case of Suffocation
Make sure the scene is safe, and immediately remove any constriction from around the victim’s neck; support the body if it is still hanging.
Call or have someone else call 9-1-1 or emergency services.
Lay the victim on the floor. In the case of spinal injury, don’t move the victim unnecessarily.
Check for breathing and pulse; If not breathing begin CPR.
If breathing, place in the recovery position and monitor until emergency responders arrive.
Don’t interfere with or destroy any material, such as a knotted rope, that police may need as evidence.
First Aid for Overdose or Poisoning
Poisoning is due to swallowing, inhaling, touching, or injecting various chemicals, drugs, gases, or venoms. Both suicide and unintentional drug overdoses kill adults at twice the rate today as they did two decades ago, and opioids are a key contributor to this rise. The following focuses on the use of drugs as a means of attempting suicide.
When a drug overdose is suspected, you may not know what drug the person was taking. Often, an overdose victim will either be unconscious or not fully conscious of their surroundings. Because of this, it is imperative to recognize the general signs of a drug overdose and what to do for first aid in the majority of situations.
How to Recognize an Overdose
Unusual sleepiness or unresponsiveness
Confusion, disorientation, or hallucination
Slow, shallow, irregular, or absent breathing
Bradycardia (slow heartbeat) or hypotension (low blood pressure)
Cold and clammy skin
Constricted pupils (small or pinpoint pupils)
Cyanotic (nails and lips are blue)
Mood changes, including aggression, agitation, anxiety, or depression
Abdominal pain or vomiting
Loss of coordination or motor control
Do’s for Drug Overdoses
Make sure the scene is safe, and check alertness. Comfort them if they are awake. If they are unconscious, turn them on their side to prevent aspiration (choking on their vomit).
Call 9-1-1 or emergency medical services. Call, or have someone else call, even if the person seems not to be experiencing overdose symptoms; never wait to see if the overdose will wear off. Some effects of an overdose don’t present themselves right away.
Check for breathing and pulse; If not breathing begin CPR.
Remove unnecessary clothing if the situation allows. Some drugs cause the patient to quickly overheat.
Find details to aid with treatment. Knowing what drug was taken, how much, when, and by what method is important. If the victim is not awake, look for containers, needles, syringes, and other items.
Don’ts for Drug Overdoses
Don’t put the person in the shower. Even if the victim seems okay, a large temperature change could put them in shock.
Don’t let the person sleep. Someone who overdosed may pass out, and you will not be able to stop them; however, trying to keep them awake makes it easier to monitor their condition.
Don’t attempt to make them throw up if they took the drugs orally. This can increase the chance of aspiration.
Don’t wait for the drug to wear off. Call for emergency medical services immediately.
Don’t try to feed the victim. Some foods can have adverse effects.
Don’t leave the victim alone. Stay with them, monitor their condition, and provide help as needed.
Don’t try to reason with or restrain a violent person or put yourself in an unsafe position.
First Aid for Known Opioid Overdose
Examples of opioids include morphine, codeine, oxycodone, oxycodone with acetaminophen, and hydrocodone with acetaminophen. Because opioids affect the part of the brain that controls breathing, too high of opioid levels in the blood can slow breathing down to dangerous levels, which could cause death.
For victims with a suspected or known opioid overdose who have a definite pulse but no normal breathing or only gasping (respiratory arrest) in addition to providing standard care, it is reasonable for trained rescuers—this includes first aid providers, non-healthcare providers, or BLS providers—to administer Narcan® (naloxone) intramuscularly or intranasally to victims with an opioid-associated respiratory emergency.
Victims with no definite pulse may be in cardiac arrest or they may have an undetected slow or weak pulse. These cases should be managed as a cardiac arrest victim.
Standard resuscitation should take priority over the administration of naloxone, with a focus on high-quality CPR. It may be reasonable to administer naloxone—especially when an opioid overdose is suspected—based on the possibility that the victim is in respiratory arrest, not cardiac.
Assess and activate. Check for unresponsiveness and call for nearby help. Send someone to call 9-1-1 and get AED and naloxone. Observe for breathing versus no breathing or only gasping.
Begin CPR. If the victim is unresponsive with no breathing or only gasping, begin CPR (CPR technique based on the rescuer’s level of training). If alone, perform CPR for about 2 minutes before leaving to phone 9-1-1 and get naloxone and an AED.
Administer naloxone. Give naloxone as soon as it is available. 2 mg intranasal or 0.4 mg intramuscular. May repeat after 4 minutes.
Does the person respond? If yes, stimulate and reassess. Continue to check responsiveness and breathing until advanced help arrives. If the person stops responding, begin CPR and repeat naloxone. If no response, continue CPR and use an AED as soon as it is available. Continue until the person responds or until advanced help arrives.
First Aid for Self-Harm or Self-Cutting
Because self-harm, also known as self-injury or self-cutting, involves physical injury, it can seem like self-harm and suicide are directly related. For example, it is common to think that cutting one’s wrist may be a suicidal gesture indicating that the person wishes to slit their wrists to die.
Self-injury can indicate a number of different things. Many people who practice self-injury may not intend to kill themselves and may even see self-harm as a way of avoiding suicide. It is crucial to note that with the pattern of self-injury occurring over weeks, months, or years, the person may be at risk for suicide.
Here’s what you should do if you a self-harm situation presents to you:
Make sure the scene is safe, and assess and activate. Assess the victim’s responsiveness. Call or have someone else call 9-1-1 or emergency services.
Locate and control the bleed. Arterial blood is bright red and spurts or sprays from the wound. If the blood is darker in color and easier to control, it means that the veins have been cut, and the artery was missed.
Apply direct, firm pressure. Apply a towel or dressing directly to the wound.
Elevate. Position the wounded limb in a position where it’s above the victim’s heart.
Occlude or pinch an artery above the injury. If possible apply pressure to an artery to halt the blood supply to that limb. If the bleeding does not stop after direct pressure, a tourniquet may be needed.
Assuming the bleeding has stopped, continue to assess the victim—circulation, airway, and breathing. Follow the Basic Life Support (BLS) Algorithm.
If You Know Someone in Crisis:
Call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) at 1–800–273–TALK (8255), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is available to everyone. The deaf and hard of hearing can contact the Lifeline via TTY at 1–800–799–4889. All calls are confidential.
Washington State Crime Victim Service Center Hotline: 888.288.9221
Contact social media outlets directly if you are concerned about a friend’s social media updates or dial 911 in an emergency.
Learn more on the NSPL’s website. The Crisis Text Line is another resource available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Text “HOME” to 741741.
We’re already socially distant. The pandemic is reaction to the systemic distortion of academics. 5G is radioactive pollution while the body succumbs to inner confusion designed and spread by mass media controlled execution. Mistrust is a must in a world built on ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The meek won’t inherit the earth as stock markets crash and cryptocurrency gains its worth. All in all as hysteria rises the unseen government builds firewalls to prevent a scenario that ends in total recall and catastrophic downfall. The love frequency has been corrupted by mental meltdown and deviant delinquency. Stay aware and resilient, maintain your militant stance, we’ve been infiltrated by reptilians. Tomorrow never knows but today the heat signature in the atmosphere grows causing an unprecedented increase in the force of tidal flows. We must dwell and excel together as we have crossed the threshold into the new forever.
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