Just how serious are you about Search & Rescue? Your level of commitment will determine not only how well you perform in the field, but also how long you last in the business.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: Hiking, and doing it well, is the bedrock of what it takes to become a skilled searcher and rescuer. You don't have to be Joe Cool rock climber to be a valuable Team Member. You do need to engage in a continual course of development in wilderness skills. All this takes is recreational hiking. When next you hike you can work on your weak points and hone your finer skills while enjoying the wilderness. Pretty good deal, huh?
Above your fundamental wilderness skills is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with our typical areas of operation. Start by studying one each of the maps sold at the SARA meetings. The vast bulk of what we do occurs in the Catalinas. But we also enjoy excursions into the Rincon, Santa Rita, Tucson, Baboquivari, Whetstone, Dragoon, Tortolita and Chiricahua mountain ranges. We've gotten into Casa Grande with large numbers and also into climbing areas near Apache junction.
MOSTLY, WE LOOK FOR PEOPLE: The majority of SAR operations begin as searches. Even rescue problems often demand that we first search for the victim. We were once in Sabino Canyon for an injured hiker. A reportee informed us that "The patient is lying at the base of the big green saguaro". In case you've never been to Sabino, there's a gazillion "big green Saguaros" in there! It was not a great help in getting the rescue going! But it worked well at kick starting a search.
Of greatest importance is your learning to search in the Santa Catalina mountains. Throughout the range are specific places we go. Each of these places has its own peculiarities. For instance, there's a whole slew of places around Rose Canyon Lake where Holler Points have been predetermined for search teams to head for. Study them and plan day trips to them. I've visited all the Rose Canyon Holler Points in one day, and I was enjoying a lazy day in the trees at the time. Other prime search areas can be visited as easily.
Make a point of systematically hiking every trail in the Catalinas. I've done all but perhaps ten or so miles of what there is, not counting cross country meanderings. I can tell you from first hand knowledge that wherever you go, what you will see is beautiful wilderness. So why miss it?
SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM: No volunteer is ever required to respond to a given call. But every volunteer is expected to respond as frequently as they are able. Defining what "able" means can get very tricky. You must find a balance between your commitment to Search & Rescue and the rest of your life. Missing a great many call outs because you're busy with other hobbies is a good signal that Search & Rescue is not where your interests lay. On the other hand becoming a stranger to family and friends because you're always off doing good deeds can be very damaging to interpersonal relationships. Neither extreme is acceptable.
As you are figuring out where you want to set your own activity limits, keep these points in mind:
What do you imagine this curious phrase might mean? Do we expect victims to show the kind of loyalty to SARA that some people show towards Fords, Chevys, and Coke Classic? Not hardly. Victim Loyalty is a measure of your professionalism. It's a kind of a sideways look at just how serious you are, and where your priorities lay.
I harp on this topic from time to time because I have seen a number of valuable organizations destroyed by internal friction. It's an unfortunate fact of human nature that groups of humans are synonymous with political intrigue, rumor mongering, bitching, griping and other forms of mob thought.
Team Members who are loyal to victims make a serious effort to get along with one another. It's a simple thing really. If you are loyal to the victim you exercise this final and absolute measure in all your Search & Rescue decisions: Is what we are doing in the best interests of the victim?
That really isn't a hard question. Consider when political maneuvering erupts into major arguments. How does shouting and screaming at each other help victims? The answer is an easy one, it doesn't. Such behavior masks real issues while setting up walls between different sub-groups in the organization. People stop talking to each other and the organization falters. Throughout your time in any Search & Rescue team keep these concepts at the ready:
I don't want to give you the wrong idea here. SARA is in pretty good shape in terms of professional behavior. I covered these points because from time to time all organizations see a little backsliding. SARA is a mature organization of over 35 years. Loyalty to victims has won out over baser human instincts. Please strive to maintain and advance this good record.
Another concern is the very curious, and all too common, tendency to evaluate the victim's chances of survival in an overly negative light. People are at once both amazingly easy to kill, and also astonishingly durable. I'm aware of cases where a victim has fallen a ridiculously short distance, say about five feet, and died instantly. At the same time ther've been people who've sustained serious and critical injuries in the wilderness who dragged themselves for days through rough terrain and unpleasant weather to reach a road
.The point of all this is that it's impossible to predict how any given individual will fare in a survival situation. At least from the limited data available to searchers. The attitude we Search & Rescue types need to maintain is that we're not in the Death Business, we're in the Life Business. We have no right to speculate the victim to death before the body is found. We are obligated to speculate, to desire, to fervently yearn and to expect the victim to be found alive and less needy than anyone had anticipated.
Nor are we in the Statistics Business. All sorts of studies have been done which tell us that the odds of finding someone alive go way down after a few days. Search Operations aren't planned around a victim's probability of survival. Search Operations are planned around the victim's probable location. Search Operations are continued for as long as resources can be found to search with and for as long as the human mind can imagine places to search.
If we were in the Statistics Business few searches would end well. Most would be abandoned early on when the numbers declared all efforts useless. But then those we look for would be left to fend for themselves. Statistics are a useful tool when examining probable victim locations. But their usefulness ends there.
An example is a search we once did in the Catalina Mountains for two overdue horseback riders. These folks left Catalina State Park on a warm December day to do a loop of the Romero, Lemmon Ridge, Saminiego, and Sutherland trails. They were long overdue when a search began in the wee early hours. Two teams of two went up the Romero and Sutherland trails. I was on one of these teams.
The search began around 01:00 under a brilliant and cloudless sky. By 03:00 a storm had arrived and it began to snow lightly. By first light it was snowing heavily and blowing with some force. By the time the two teams reached the mountain top visibility was very bad, the snow was drifting deeply, and it was bitterly cold. Both teams, and some supporting personnel who had driven to the top, retired to the Iron Door Restaurant to rest up while snow plows cleared the highway down the mountain.
It was in the restaurant that the victims were written off. Among the exhausted searchers was one who flatly stated that the riders were too long overdue to have survived the storm. No one else saw fit to rebut this point, myself included. Being fairly new and easily impressed I accepted this sad and tragic ending.
Big mistake. The search continued whole hog with fresh volunteers from both Tucson and Phoenix. It lasted several days. The victims were "found" when they drove into the park to pick up their vehicles and horse trailers!
As it turned out the victims did indeed get lost. They missed the Sutherland Trail and wandered out of the Canyon del Oro into a ranch house near the town of Oracle. The rancher, always happy to help fellow horse folk in need, fed them steak dinners and made them comfortable in his home until transportation back to the park could be arranged.
"Writing Off The Victim" is a motivational problem. If you anticipate defeat, you make it likely. Pessimistic searchers are poor searchers. Optimistic searchers always win because anticipating success renders it both more likely, and all the sweeter when it is attained.
Stress is a real and present enemy for those who involve themselves in the emergency services. In recent times the effects of stress upon volunteer emergency workers has received much attention. What you need to understand is that everyone feels stress to some degree, be it a major problem or a minor annoyance. So too do you need to understand that stress is a problem that cuts across all lines. The most experienced and hardened of Team Members are as susceptible to the cumulative effects of critical incidents as are the newest and greenest of Search & Rescue volunteers. Also susceptible are family and friends of Search & Rescue personnel.
A state of increasing or sustained levels of emotional turmoil resulting from ones involvement in one or more emergency operations. There are three essential periods in which stress may be felt. These are preincident, incident and post incident stress.
Preincident stress occurs when first notice is received alerting you to a Search & Rescue situation. This is the racing heartbeat and nervous pacing that most new volunteers experience from the time they are called to the moment they first enter the field on an assignment.
Incident stress occurs during a Search & Rescue operation. A culmination of your concerns over your own performance, concern for the victims safety and the general level of tension existing throughout the team.
Post incident stress is the compound resulting from time being mixed in with all other sources of stress. It is primarily what this chapter deals with.
The path from first notice to the week after the call out is fraught with stressful situations. Your family's reaction to your leaving the dinner table to respond. Your reaction to the limited information of the pager. Trying to get through traffic to rendezvous. Getting onto a team and getting the show on the road. Worrying over the victim's plight. Dealing with the victim's family or the news media. Working with many other high energy and strong ego types. Finding the victim in a less then pleasing state, or dead. Complex technical rescues where everything is happening at once. Coming off an adrenaline high after the call out. Worrying over how well things went in the weeks after the call out.
Post Incident Stress is a normal human reaction to critical or dynamic situations. It may be characterized by any or all of the following:
Absolutely anyone may at some time or another experience symptoms such as those listed above. Be aware that it isn't just body recoveries and intense rescues that contribute to the problem. The aftermath of a successful rescue or search has been compared to coming off a wild roller coaster ride, only with lots more adrenaline lying around. With the adventure over, we must instantly revert back to the comparative boredom of everyday life. The transition is not always easy.
For those you leave behind the problem is fed by their honest concerns for your safety. Erroneous news reports or media sensationalizing of the facts only serve to fan the flames.
All stress reactions are normal but unnecessary responses of caring people to the suffering of others. Coping with all forms of stress begins with your accepting the problem as a normal human reaction.
The single most important activity for preventing post incident stress is to "end the call out". We do this with a debriefing where all involved get together at a convenient point to ask questions of and to explain to each other what went on and why. Volunteers need to complete their picture of what happened. They need to understand why decisions were made and what the conditions actually were. This reflects the dynamic nature of our business.
Many things happen in many different places. There is a sense of isolation from the rest of the team when you are out on a field assignment and things start hopping miles away. By holding a debriefing we fill in the blanks and pull all the pieces together. This is especially important for the newest Team Members. Older and more hardened sorts often prefer to skip the debriefing. This ignores the reticence of newer people to voice their concerns or desires.
Following up a rescue or search with a social gathering is very helpful in reducing tension and easing the transition to quieter pursuits than Search & Rescue stuff. Pizza Meetings and that sort of thing after an operation are an excellent way to unwind and make the transition from controlled franticness to mundane everyday life.
The benefits of social activity for stress reduction should also be shared with the rescuers family. Quite a few volunteers are in the habit of inviting family members to these after the call out get-togethers. This allows spouses and children a way to participate in Search & Rescue. It also helps the family to fulfill its mutual support function for all its members.
Without this involvement the rescuers family often experiences stress reactions. The sense of isolation from what is going on as well as concern for a loved ones safety can be extremely trying on families. Involve your family as much as possible both for their benefit and yours. Should it not be possible to involve your family at one of these events, be certain to at least discuss the details of the operation with them afterward and to listen to their concerns.
Even with a debriefing and social interaction to end the call out, volunteers may still experience the effects of post incident stress. When this happens it is up to the person so afflicted to seek out help. Help is available from several sources. Most people simply discuss their trouble with family or close friends either in or out of the Search & Rescue community. Commonly this is all that is needed.
Critical Incident Debriefings were created to assist public safety professionals and volunteers to defuse the emotional trauma that can result from participating in an extreme emergency operation. These "Critical Incidents" are those which exceed the normal level of tension or danger commonly encountered by emergency workers. These are situations where people died after rescuers arrived, and frequently following intense or even heroic efforts to prevent death. Or a Critical Incident may simply involve an especially useless death or suffering; such as a child, teenager or young adult.
The debriefing is carried out by a team of professionals who have volunteered their time to serve the needs of emergency workers and members of the public who have been involved in life and death incidents. Normally done immediately after a critical incident, a debriefing can be requested at any time by anyone. The debriefers work to bring out underlying sources of stress or emotional trauma through a question and answer or roundtable discussion process. Whatever method is used the goal is to help people confront and defuse underlying stress.
Critical Incident Debriefings are most timely when they are requested before a critical incident is over. It is in the first few hours after the call that the greatest effect can be had on preventing emotional trauma from becoming embedded. If you are involved in an operation and feel such a debriefing is called for, discuss it with the Operations Leader or the Sheriff's deputy assigned to the operation.
On to The Addendum...
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