When will we learn?

Kia Ora,

It seems these days as we move to everything by procedure we are loosing the ability to react quickly to a situation.

Of course right now it is the mine disaster & suddenly after four days all the things people have been suggesting are suddenly happening.

But as a caller to radio said earlier it is an old mining adage that right after an explosion there is no gas as it is all burnt out in the explosion but will build after that. So had people been able to get down shortly after things could of been different right now. Though the information been given out is that if people survived the blast(& historically it has been shown many or most actually do)then the areas set up as go to points would be able to sustain them.

But it is another issue that is now of course in the background that has come to light again.

It is the issue of mental health & how we deal with it. This has come to light because of a murder conviction of someone that was twice in the weeks leading up to the murder, the person who carried it out had, along with family members sort help from the mental health services. They were seen & advised he was no risk to himself or others.

The problem is for his family is the same happened with his father, only that time though it was said to be an accident, the family believe he took his own life after been talked from leaving the area of a high road here in Christchurch. His car left the road further down & went into the sea.
Prentice Hall Reviews & Rationales: Mental Health Nursing (2nd Edition)
One of the first jobs I had in security on leaving the army was security at one of our major hospitals.

We spent a lot of time dealing with mental health patients. What became obvious was the psych emergency teams had to work from a procedure & tick off a check list even though their eyes told them differently.

There was an incident in particular just before I left, where we as security calmed a person down who was worried about himself & his kids. He was told he was OK let go with an appointment to come back in a week to assess. His children were allowed to stay with him & he killed them, then whilst under assessment for his mental health he took his own life. This was only brought to the media attention by his wife who had split with him over these issues & had let the children stay because of the clearance.
Foundations of Mental Health Care
It goes back to what I have said often. Standard Operating Procedures(SOP's) are guidelines only but in NZ we now see these as set in concrete.

Again it comes back to SOP's been good from a training point of view & a good starting point for any incident by having your thinking already going through the steps required. But desptie been based on experience they do not fit every situation.

Anyone who has seen the first Diehard movie will remember how the FBI handbook was used against them.
Mental Health and Mental Illness
This is still the concern I have for the Rugby World Cup, that if a major incident happens there will be too much of a worry about procedures & protecting a site for resulting inquiries when in fact they will have maybe 30 seconds before the next incident in the case of a terrorist attack.

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz