Alicia Bermejo: A Force for Health Hero
Alice Bermejo, is my Force for Health Hero for today. She works at the Chopper Truck Café in Yonker’s New York.
Look what greeted her as she tried to fulfill a delivery app order.
She may have saved a life because:
1. She was AWARE of a potential situation when the notes section of a burger order in an app, asked her to call the police.
2. She CARED enough to pause and think about what to do and discuss with co-workers
3. She DARED to act, not just wonder if it was a prank. Its hard to act because it is natural to feel embarrassed if you were part of a prank and would feel naïve or silly.
4. She SHARED what she saw and thought with the police who took her seriously and acted.
Do you or your staff have the empowerment, knowledge, and support to act like she did.
Act they also aware of a less obvious distress signals. Two come to mind that require someone to be knowledgeable and open to the possibility that this once in a lifetime distress call they may see or hear is real.
SOS. It originally meant Save Our Ship, but is now known worldwide. You might see this in a written message, such as with soap on a bathroom mirror, on in fog on a car window.
You might also hear the Morse (telegraph) code version which is three quick taps, 3 taps with a longer pause between them, and 3 quick taps. On a telegraph this would be dot, dot dot, pause, dash, dash, dash, pause dot , dot, dot, the codes for the letters S.O.S.
The Help Signal with hand sign language is increasing being shared around the world in requests. Show the palm to someone in front or you or behind your back. Fold the thumb in and then entrapped the thumb with your fingers. Repeat if you can. It is a silent, quick way to communicate a message of distress and request for help. A real issue is that if it is not recognized by the person seeing it, or is not acted upon, then it is useless. The action taken can be good observation of who they are with, where they are, what car and license number they were in, and then rapid communication to the police with this information.
We at the Force for Health Network ask you to share it with your staff, students, or neighbors.
Here is a graphic to consider posting and sharing.
