Week 10: First Aid Supplies and Training

This week's tasks: 

1. Put together a portable family first-aid kit to keep with your emergency supplies and a first aid kit for your car(s)  
2. If you don't feel confident in your ability to administer simple first aid, look into taking a CPR/First Aid course.

First Aid Courses: Knowing how to act quickly in an emergency can save lives.  If you haven't had first aid training in the past few years, it's a good idea to refresh your skills.  I took a class recently and many of the recommendations have changed since my last training some years ago.  Basic first aid training also now includes training to use AED's, which save many lives each year.  You can look for classes in basic CPR and First Aid in your area on the Red Cross Website.  Or check with your HR department to see if your employer sponsors on-site courses.  If you're interested in something more comprehensive, REI offers 2-day wilderness medicine courses. Click here for a list of courses in the SF Bay Area.  Also, many communities offer free Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training that includes a first-aid component as part of a larger course.  Check your city's website for more information.

First Aid Reference Material:  You can download the Red Cross First Aid Manual here for free (you get a hard copy of this manual when you take their course).  If you have a smart phone, you can download the Red Cross's First Aid App.  But keep in mind that reference material is not a good substitute for proper training when you find yourself in a situation where every second counts.

First Aid Supplies: The Red Cross provides a list of things that should be in your first aid kit here.   The easiest and cheapest solution is to purchase a first aid kit and supplement it with anything from the Red Cross list that it is missing (commercial kits tend to lack decent scissors and tweezers) as well as any special supplies your family needs (e.g. allergy medicine, infant Tylenol, etc.).  Our local Target store, the Red Cross Website, and Amazon.com have a large variety of first aid kits to choose from.  I have these in my car and this in my 72-hour kit (I added a few things to both kits, like more Advil, a bigger tube of antibiotic ointment,  children's pain medicine, etc).

An important note about calling 911 from a cell phone: If you call 911 from a cell phone, your call will be routed to a central dispatcher who will try to figure out how to route you to your local emergency services.  In the SF Bay area, the central dispatcher is the California Highway Patrol in San Jose.  The re-routing process can be slow and local emergency personnel strongly recommend that when using a cell phone to report an emergency, you call the local dispatcher directly, if you can.  Here are the local numbers to put in your cell phone (if you live somewhere else, you should be able to get this information from your city website or local police department):

Albany: 510-525-7300
Berkeley:  510-981-5911
El Cerrito: 510-233-1214