Health and Wellness

Rationale: this zine proposes the following as true: Many of us experienced childhood and adolescent traumas and continue to experience traumas based on our individual intersectionalities

As communities in Portland and elsewhere deal with the ongoing realities of police violence, discussions and projects have emerged to work towards accountable, nonoppressive, and community-driven alternatives to police forces.

Black Cross Health Collective is an affinity group of health care workers who live in Portland, Oregon. We formed after the WTO protests because we saw a need for medical care that is specific to the radical community.

This piece of writing comes out of a series of discussions which occurred on the forums of libcom.org. It was repeatedly raised that depression, mental illness, and emotional stress are very common amongst libertarian political activists. Furthermore, suffering from mental illness as someone who is politically active often comes with its own set of complications.

Our immune systems are equipped with powerful mechanisms to fight off infections, and there are many ways we can support and develop this innate capacity.

Because the professional capitalist healthcare system is oriented towards maximization of profit, rather than providing viable care for the everyone’s needs, many of us lack access to care anywhere but the emergency room.

Hypothermia = when core body temperature drops. Risk Factors for hypothermia: Cool , cold, wet, or windy weather. Improper clothing and equipment. Clothes that are tight and impair circulation.

Washing hands like a surgeon. Standing six feet away from others – especially Elders. Disinfecting surfaces nonstop. Extinction of handshakes. This is the world we are currently living in, and we are told it could go on for some time.

Prevention: Prehydrate. The body cools itself by sweating; you can lose up to 3 quarts of water per hour through sweat. Pre-hydration provides a fluid "cushion.”

Elija un grupo de personas en las que confíe, preferiblemente personas con quienes comparte la vida diaria, con factores de riesgo y niveles de tolerancia al riesgo similares.

In a world that seals up the side trails, hidden doors and underground caves, forcing us all to walk the arbitrary straight path of so-called normalcy, The Icarus Project is a respite for those who wish to explore the art of getting lost.

In preparation for combat, soldiers and officers are typically pumped up for their fight, just as football players sike themselves up before a game. during the WTO protests in Seattle, activists later heard that FBI agents were telling police that four officers would die during the protests

Critical incident stress can be caused by events at protests and mass mobilizations such as: use of terror tactics (sometimes indiscriminately) by police, including physical, mental and sexual assault, the experience of prolonged and intense fear, being separated from injured colleagues, sexual harassment by other protestors

Riot medicine is the practice of medicine in an adversarial environment.
It exists outside of formal and State sanctioned medical services.

Rx Open provides information on the operating status of healthcare facilities in areas impacted by a disaster.

We have seen over the past few months of the Black-led uprising against police violence that we will all be met with extreme violence at the hands of police, national guard, military contractors, fascist militia members, and alt-right lone-wolfs. What is the one thing we can all collectively do to ensure that our casualties are given a fighting chance to live after being attacked? Carry medical gear for trauma treatment and learn basic trauma first aid.

When resisting various forces of domination, you may be met with repression taking many forms: (police) violence (or the threat of it),
surveillance, criminalization, incarceration, among other things. We must be prepared for this.

Street medics, or action medics, are volunteers with varying degrees of medical training who attend protests and demonstrations to provide medical care such as first aid.

National first aid systems in most of the world came out of the medical corps of popular and liberation movements of the 1950s and 1960s. In the United States, street medics were operating and training in Mississippi and New York City at least four years before the first statewide EMS program was established in Maryland.

People experiencing unsheltered homelessness are at high risk of dying from COVID19.

While traveling, we are exposed to all the illnesses and problems that trouble us when residing in our own communities, but also by everyone else’s.

One of the amazing things about activists is that we often deliberately expose ourselves to brutality when we believe it necessary.

The reality of climate change is actually very frightening. We are already in times of dangerous climate change, with worse forecast if we continue with business as usual, pouring excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

This toolkit contains resources to help and support adults and children before, during, and after a disaster or traumatic event. It will help you understand some of the impacts of disaster and how you can help lessen these impacts.

An overview of emotional and psychological first aid including basic objectives of psychological first aid, delivering psychological first aid, some behaviors to avoid, characteristics of empathetic listeners, and more.

Part one of an emotional first aid webinar.

Part two of an emotional first aid webinar.

Part three of an emotional first aid webinar.

In an action, in any potentially tense of dangerous situation, we need to be able to stay calm, to feel our fear without letting it overrun us or turn into panic. Grounding is a technique that can help us stay both alert and relaxed when all hell is breaking loose around us.

For the last few years, large numbers of our people have been out in the streets, engaging in powerful and necessary direct action, and fighting for the lives of our people.

This is a difficult time, and most of us are under enormous pressure. We might be experiencing isolation, illness, income loss, fear for loved ones, loss of loved ones, anxiety, and many other painful circumstances.

Street medicine has revolutionary roots and innovations beginning and
reaching through the civil rights movement and continued as a tenet of
mutual aid and self defense through the Black panthers, American Indian
Movement, land defense movements, Guerilla resistance mobilizations
and other direct action liberation struggles.

Webinar on responding to a mental health crisis.

One cannot expect a rebellion, any rebellion, against any authority, to come without hardship relative to one’s own already desperate condition. Many have died and sacrificed for the struggles for liberation we hold in our hearts, and those who bear witness also bear scars.

What can individuals do about burnout? Let’s start with primary prevention. This means the things that might help everyone prevent burnout. Here we focus on resilience-enhancing behaviors.

When terrible things happen in our communities, countries and the world, we want to reach out a helping hand to those who are affected. This guide covers psychological first aid which involves humane, supportive and practical help to fellow human beings suffering serious crisis events.

What you hold in your hands is a rough toolkit of ideas and visions
and it is meant to be shared and discussed and used for action as the
Occupy movement evolves.

A Webinar about street therapy

Burnout is a political and movement issue. Every year committed activists suffer and drop out of our community because they have burnt out.

It is very difficult to do long periods of intense solidarity work without
feeling emotionally exhausted.

This resource binder was created for CAMBU (Las Marias, PR) in anticipation of presenting a workshop there that I put together (included in this binder). I felt that it would be important to help equip this CAM with some basic tools and resources that can help guide volunteers, teachers and parents in their work with youth.

These are things people need to know about trauma to heal quicker or prepare mentally or at least be aware that the process is known and trauma can be healed.

People decide to become humanitarian workers for many different reasons. Some come to this work because of a personal commitment to social change – perhaps to follow a spiritual path or to fulfill a calling.

An overview of vicarious trauma, what it is, risk factors, signs and symptoms, and ways to address vicarious trauma,

Humanitarian workers come in many shapes and sizes. They work in on-site recovery and relief missions, education, health training, agricultural assistance, community mobilization, economic development, water and sanitation, conflict resolution, and advocacy.

Protest health and safety training webinar

This is a live recording of the Webinar presented on June 3, 2020 by the Community Alternatives to 911.

Action medic health and safety training webinar

Street Medic bridge training webinar for medical professionals