Vigilance: looking out for me and my friends

Vigilance: Situational awareness.

You can sometimes protect your friends, but you have to be able to protect yourself first.  

In Force for Health, we teach that you should work to make yourself as strong and fit as you can, then you will be able to have the strength and knowledge and can develop the skills to help others.

We call that:

Learn it. Live it. Share it.

Vigilance:  It is everywhere in nature. 

The animal world is filled with vigilant parents looking out for harm and stepping in to  protect their young.  Watch this mother bear on the look out for threats or food.   The rhino mother carefully allows her baby to explore but steps in when there is too much risk of harm.  How do people look out for you and how do you look out for yourself and others?  Think of some examples. You are not on your own. People are there to help watch out for you and sometimes they need to know you need help. 

Vigilance means to

BE AWARE  and PREPARE TO NOT DESPAIR  

This set of lessons is designed to have you look at yourself, and at the same time prepare you to be aware of issues with friends or family members or others you know and prepare  you to be able to know how to help them. 

Life is not always fair.  Stuff Happens.  Address Distress 

Sometimes the best place to find the care you need is at home. Sometimes you have to look elsewhere. 

Ask for help until you get what you need. 

  Dare to Pair up with someone that Cares. 

Be on the lookout for things that may threaten your ability to function.  Like physical risks that we are trained to avoid,  we need to be aware of situations that can add too much stress, or put us at risk for harm. 

Watch for risks,  prepare for how to avoid them or deal with them, and care enough to take action to protect yourself and others. 

“BOLO”

This is the term a dispatcher uses when they expect that there is a risk…It stands for  BE ON THE LOOKOUT for suspect or suspicious vehicle.   Vigilance means to BOLO for harmful objects, situations, emotions, and know what to do when you find them. 

If you see something, say something.

​ A suit case with no one around could be a  bomb.  Someone wearing a long bulky coat on a hot day, could be hiding a gun or rifle.  Vigilance means if it doesn’t look right, say something to someone in authority. 

It also means if you feel something, tell something to a trusted person that might be able to help you deal with your feelings or to help someone you know get help with theirs.    

Reach out to ask for help

Remember the availability of Hotlines such as:

1-800-273-8255.

Hyper-vigilance is a term used when one is badly affected by too much awareness and full of so much fear, that they are adversely affected by things that are not risks.  

An example is a loud noise, such as a book dropping off a desk, scares someone into diving to the floor thinking they are getting shot at, or yelling at the person that dropped the book with great anger out of proportion to what is healthy or normal. 

Like a puzzle, when people pull together with their pieces of a solution, the picture gets clearer and easier to understand. 

Click the photo below to link to a website that discusses recognizing mental health issues in others.

Stand Out From The Crowd

You have the power to work on your skills for vigilance. In this course you will help develop this as part of your plan to be resilient, so when you face adversity, you can deal with it. Keep a watchful eye to try to avoid harm, build a system of support and relationships, and prepare to deal with whatever comes your way or to recognize when to care enough about someone else to help them get the help they need. You are about to learn the things to observe to be able to spot how stress and risks are affecting someone.

Watch out for each other. Be ready to share that you care. 

Be ready to share that you care.   Watch out for others and now  learn the signs of distress in the next few topics. 

Think about who and how you could get help for someone you love…such as yourself or someone else. 

Be a force for health. Be vigilant. Prevent harm.  Be Resilient  and minimize any damage. Recognize distress.  Act to help.