Why Everyone Needs Active Shooter Training – after Big Bear!

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

Active Shooter is not a technical term, it basically means anyone with a gun who is actively) shooting at you!

They can be shooting randomly, getting ready to shoot themselves, shooting from a freeway overpass, or shooting in a populated area – if they havea gun, AND they’re shooting – then they’re an Active Shooter!

The sad story of cop Christopher Dorner and his shooting frenzy affected me personally, because I lived in the high mountains of Forest Falls, one town east of Big Bear, for years, and one of my sons attended tiny Fallsvale elementary school, which was locked down at the height of the craziness.

This shooter targeted his victims in some cases, and others were shot randomly. All the victims had no idea of what was coming at them.

The Department of Homeland Security has really stepped up its program to train people to deal with the Active Shooter scenario, and, after Dorner, and Newtown, and Aurora, and Fort Hood, that maybe everyone should have active shooter training. Just in the last year alone, there have been 15 prominent active shooter incidents.

You can start at DHS and get videos, powerpoints, active shooter reference cards – for carrying in wallets, purses and book bags, as well as posters and training manuals. Here’s the link: http://www.dhs.gov/active-shooter-preparedness.

Why not train our school children, like we used to train for bomb drills, by jumping under the desks and covering our heads? Why not have mandatory training for all teachers? What about mandatory training for all healthcare workers? And all IRS agents? And threater goers?

If you’re reading this – you can get ready yourself, become situationally aware, and pass on the favor!

Adding a New and Real Threat – Meteor Shower Damage

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

After the meteor showers over Siberia this week, Russia put together a Financial analysis of the damage from

1200 injured by flying glass
$33,000,000 in damage
4,000 building damaged
50 Acres of windows shattered

In the last twenty-five years, as the rate of climate change has increase, we have added new threats like Tsunami and ash pollution (from Subic Bay in the Phillipines).

Now meteor showers have actually come to cause damage to companies so they are another factor to be included in risk assessments.

In evaluating threats for a risk assessment, many in the northeast would always tell me,“take out earthquakes”, we don’t have earthquakes in Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. That changed in 2011 when the Mineral, Virginia earthquake hit during a mid-week business day.

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) – Aug. 24, 2011. There was an earthquake in Central Virginia that measured 5.8 on the Richter scale centered about 5 miles south of Mineral in Louisa, depth 3.7 miles at about 1:51 p.m. The quake was centered at 38°N, 78°W.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered about 38 miles northwest of Richmond, Va., about 84 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York City. See a map of the quake from Chuck Bailey, professor of geology at the College of William and Mary.

Hospitals, government offices, dams and power generating plants, including nuclear plants, were forced to suddenly reevaluate the long held idea that earthquakes just didn’t happen in the NorthEast.

The threat from meteor damage is the same idea. It never happened before, but now it has happened again, if you count Tunguska as the first time.

Damage from meteor showers will now add a new category into the Threat index, even though this was the first event in my lifetime, if analyst factor in the previously known instances, such as the Tunguska Meteor Event, which did not occur thousands of years ago, like the meteor event in the Yucatan peninsula that killed off the dinosaurs, but
Tunguska occurred in 1908! Almost in this century.

Over the next month, we’ll be looking at each different threat every week. Sign up for my blog or access by following me on twitter at www.twitter.com/riskalert.

Assessing School Security Takes on New Dimensions after Sandy Hook Tragedy

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

After 30 years of security risk assessment experience and working with hundreds of schools, hospitals, facilities, I have to say that schools have not taken school security seriously.

Obviously there are the social pressures including mental health screening, proposed assault weapons bans, gun owner screening, etc., but these are the thing that won’t change overnight. EVEN IF THEY ARE LEGISLATED, it takes time to implement, and
implementation may not be perfect.

TODAY IS THE DAY TO DO A SCHOOL VIOLENCE ASSESSMENT – not tomorrow, not after new gun laws, not after the holidays — TODAY.

There are indicators you can look for to see if your school is at risk of an active shooter incident. And ways to be prepared if the unthinkable happens and an active shooter comes to your school.

Strong, simple access control is the most effective solution, and yes, this may mean that
a plain glass front door or window is not enough. Glass is easily broken, and yes, it means that all staff must be a little more accountable, and it probably means a red phone or connection to the local police.

There is a simple school risk assessment program that will give guidance on what you need to do TODAY, what controls you need to implement, what threats are most likely to occur. These can be accessed on the www.riskandsecurityllc.com website.

Some things are preventable, some aren’t. But lockdown drills, alarm systems, and active monitoring of cameras are just a few of the 60 controls every school should have in place to protect our precious children.

And this comes from the grandmother who’s 3-year old twins turned 3 yesterday!

Chemical Weapons – the True December 21st Potential Disaster

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

Maybe the Mayan Calendar has forecast a deadly chemical attack that would poison the world, not a pole shift after all.

Know much about chemical weapons? They are semi-easily dispersed. They can decimate a population in the time it takes a plane to fly overhead. They are gruesome death.

The U.S. actually keeps track of all chemical weapons – and biologic weapons, too. Did you know that inspectors all over the world fan out when a nation state fails (and sometime before) and can tell you exactly what it is and where it is kept.

My friends in this business have traveled all over the former Soviet Union, counting the anthrax vials in a deserted laboratory in the middle of a forest, for example, and making careful notes, not just on the location of the now-deserted laboratory, but also checking the state of security for those sites.

Is the facility secured? Is there a guard service? Are there card access or cypher locks on the doors? Are the windows locked and secured? Is there access from the roof?

Is there a tree too close to the roof that could be used for access?

All these plans and assessments can be hauled out at times like these, helping to keep the world safe from chemical and biological weapons. At least, that’s what we are all hoping, and counting on.

Happy Saturday!!

After The Surgeon Kills Girlfriend at the Hospital – what next?

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Caroline

Time for a Workplace Violence Assessment? You think?

The shooting death of 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski at Erie County Medical Center left the community in shock last week, especially since the shooter was a surgeon!

The surgeon’s body was found Friday, near his home, with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. And this tragedy illustrates why EVERY hospital and medical center should be required to do a Baseline Workplace Violence Assessment.

The warning signs were there, the surgeon had lost weight, had become moody and distant, and also had advanced special forces weapons training in his background.

That’s exactly why he passed a background check, but after that initial check, his blatant symptoms of personal problems were ignored, even by the very people who observed them.

Now the hospital staff is traumatized, a beautiful young nurse is dead, the Eric County Medical Center administrators can look forward to an in-depth OSHA investigation, with possible fines and even more disruption.

Don’t let your hospital be a victim of this kind of incident. A Workplace Violence Assessment can be completed in just 5 days, and will reduce the chance of a potential violent incident by over 75%.

Email me directly to get the new white paper on how to prevent workplace violence incidents at caroline-hamilton@att.net.

Rats with Spinal Cord Injuries Recover to Walk and Run using Electricity & Chocolate!

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Caroline

The amazing part of this experiment was that if you believe in the power of positive thinking…

And you watched WHAT THE BLEEP more than twice….

And you believe in the power of visualization and of the brain to rewire itself….

YOU WERE RIGHT!

The article was published in SCIENCE MAGAZINE today, June 1, 2012.

The rats had severe (not moderate) spinal cord injuries and were rehabbed with a combination of electric stimulus and the rats were also shown a big reward – chocolate, that they had to “visualize themselves” getting.

“After a couple of weeks of neurorehabilitation with a combination of a robotic harness and electrical-chemical stimulation, our rats are not only voluntarily initiating a walking gait, but they are soon sprinting, climbing up stairs and avoiding obstacles when stimulated,” Courtine, chairman of the International Paraplegic Foundation, said in a statement.

The brain and spinal cord can adapt and recover from moderate injury, a quality known as neuroplasticity, but until now, the spinal cord expressed so little plasticity after severe injury that recovery was impossible.

Courtine said his findings prove, under certain conditions, plasticity and recovery can take place in these severe cases after the spinal cord was injected a chemical solution of monoamine agonists.

These chemicals trigger cell responses by binding to specific dopamine, adrenaline and serotonin receptors located on the spinal neurons, Courtine said.

Five to 10 minutes after the injection, the scientists electrically stimulated the spinal cord with electrodes implanted in the outermost layer of the spinal canal, which sent continuous electrical signals through nerve fibers to the chemically excited neurons that control leg movement, the researchers said.

The findings are scheduled to be published in the June 1 issue of Science.

How long does it take for OSHA to develop standards – like for Workplace Violence?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Caroline

Why OSHA standards take so long to develop

The Government Accountability office reports to Congress on items of interest to Congress and their constituents. One area that was recently examined was how long it takes OSHA to update standards, or develop new standards. Here’s a look at the results:

By: David LaHoda, April 30th, 2012

A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on why OSHA standards take, on average, more than seven years to complete found that “increased procedural requirements, shifting priorities, and a rigorous standard of judicial review” contributed to the lengthy time frame.

In responding to the GAO report, Randy Rabinowitz, OMB Watch’s director of regulatory policy said: “In the years since its creation, OSHA’s charge to protect workers from harm has been undermined by Kafkaesque demands for additional reviews of existing rules mandated by new statutes and executive orders,” according to The Hill. While OSHA’s internal inability to remain focused on priorities and regulatory follow-through was the counter argument presented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“While some of the changes, such as improving coordination with other agencies to leverage expertise, are within OSHA’s authority, others call for significant procedural changes that would require amending existing laws,” according tot he GAO report.

The GAO report recommended that that OSHA and NIOSH improve collaboration on researching occupational hazards. In that way OSHA could better “leverage NIOSH expertise in determining the needs for new standards and developing them.”

For the entire 55-page report go to http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-330

April is Workplace Violence Awareness Month

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Caroline

The American Association of Workplace Violence Prevention (www.aawvp.org) has designated April 2012 as official Workplace Violence Awareness Month!

You can celebrate in your office by suggesting ways to reduce workplace violence in your own environment. At AAWVP, they stress that workplace violence also happens to you, not just at work, but at the late-night grocery store or convenience store, in the hospital where you’re visiting your father, and even in your own home.

As part of the awareness raising event, the Association has invited me to participate in a special webinars about workplace violence at 2:00 pm Eastern Time, on April 18th.

You can join us by registering at http://tinyurl.com/85e33h8

Preview of the Webinar on Workplace Violence Prevention

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Caroline

Companies often don’t think about preventing workplace violence until there is an incident that affects them, or a company similar to them, or geographically close. As soon as something happens close to home, they want to get serious and do something about it right away.

Workplace violence prevention is actually a process that, like in quantum physics, when we talked about the observed particle, just putting management’s attention on the potential problem will start the prevention process.

A good place to start is with adjusting and updating your policies. Perhaps your policy is outdated, or hasn’t been publicized in your organization. Time to dust it off and make sure it includes these critical elements:

1. It says: We have a total no-weapons policy in this company.

2. Employees are REQUIRED to report any potential, or even suspected workplace violence situations or incidents.

3. There is an approved company form which every employee has electronically, to use
if necessary.

4. Every employee has to attend a violence prevention training course, or active shooter drill, or both, annually.

The policy is the first step. Next, the policy has to be approved by the management or by the Board, and then sent to every employee, along with an affirmation agreement that they sign saying they read the policy and understand it.

More tomorrow… or attend our special workplace violence webinar. You can sign up at:

http://t.co/rKBuoDgt

My Take on Not Having Health Insurance to Encourage Health Accountability

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Caroline

I raised my children without healthcare insurance!! Wow – what a great accomplishment! Now they are both healthy grown men who take their health very seriously. They stay in shape, exercise, both go to the gym every day or at least every other day and I think that accountability for their own health came from growing up without health insurance.

Health insurance is a scam in many ways. It has the proven result of making people not care about their own health, not being responsible for their own health because they figure, “If something bad happens, insurance will cover it”.

So they overeat, drink too much, eating transfat donuts, fried chicken, french fries and go to the doctor when their arteries start closing up at age 50, or when they find out they are pre-diabetic, or have high blood pressure.

My independent health care started when I didn’t have health insurance through my company, but then I got it and decided never to use it! That has been a point of honor for me.

I like the idea that I have to pay for my own health maintenance. If I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, I get very picky about how much I have to spend, and the best way NOT to spend money on healthcare is to STAY HEALTHY!

A revolutionary thought! But – hey, it’s worked for me my whole life. I have never been sick, except for scarlet fever when I was 7. So go back and read some of my other posts about working out, eating fresh, whole, organic food, and doing yoga, and whether you have health insurance or not, you may find there’s a way to stay healthy!