When an emergency strikes your family, how well prepared you are will determine if you are reactive or proactive. Trying to figure out how to respond to an injury, intruder, fire, weather emergency or other trauma as or after it happens can cost you critical time and put you and your family in danger. Prepare for the worst before it happens to increase your chances of keeping your family safe.
Identification
Write a comprehensive list of situations that can occur at home and away from your house. The will include problems such as an intruder, fire, choking, tornado, car accident, heart attack, abduction, swimming and boating accidents, animal attack or poisoning.
Features
After you have written your list, write scenarios for each emergency so your family, especially young children, can anticipate, spot and avoid dangerous situations. This would include not taking rides with strangers, not swimming without an adult present, not playing behind cars, how to approach a dog and staying away from medicine cabinets and other cupboards and storage containers.
Considerations
For each emergency, determine how each family member will respond. During a fire, children should have two escape routes. If someone is drowning, going for help may be a better response than trying to help the drowning victim. Calling 911, rather than immediate first aid, might be the first response to choking or an injury. If parents are not home or if family members get separated, children should know where to go for help. It's not enough to tell your children to avoid strangers, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Give children specific responses to threatening situations, such as yelling for help, running to a neighbor's home or running to a nearby group of people.
Practice
Once you have created ways to anticipate and spot emergencies and have developed plans to address them, rehearse them. Have surprise, late-night fire drills. Let young children practice dialing the phone and using a fire extinguisher. Teach family members CPR and basic first aid.
Prevention/Solution
Examine your home for safety hazards, including exposed electrical outlets, sharp tools, medicines or toxic substances children or pets might reach, and razors or other dangerous items placed in garbage cans. Keep one or more fire extinguishers in the house and have fire, burglar and carbon monoxide alarms. Keep phone numbers in multiple, easy-to-reach places and put emergency numbers on speed dial. The Home Safety Council recommends making showers and tubs safer with grab bars and non-slip mats.
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