As it was Mark Zuckerberg's birthday this week, I decided to take a look at what Facebook resources would benefit response teams. For some this may seem basic but if ordinarily you only use Facebook for personal use there are subtle differences worth knowing.

If all the Facebook users formed a country it would be one of the biggest in the world with a reported 1 Billion monthly active users. We have talked in the past about how social media in general can help publicise your team. But I wanted to talk about some specific features that will help your team reach a small chunk of these 1 Billion users.

Fan pages - Share your team success with the public

If you’re in a country with english as the first language, Facebook is quick route to a largest proportion of your community. You should create a page (not a personal user profile) and post regular information about your training, incidents, and any press you get.

Many teams only appear to the public in the case of a large disaster, this makes community awareness an issue. It’s a harsh truth but lack of public awareness can affect funding. Posting consistent content featuring what your team is doing behind the scenes to prepare for these worst case scenarios will help build some much needed community support and awareness.  

Events - Invite your community

To get the most out of any your fundraising or community awareness events, you can share them with your facebook fans through the use of Facebook events. Your team members can also send out event invites to their own Facebook friends, extending the reach of your event. With the events feature you can get a nice idea of how many people are expected at the event as people can choose attendance options (Yes,No,Maybe) you can also share updates and details of the event.

Share content - Blog posts

It's worth registering a domain name for your team and pointing it to a blog or other news content management system that allows comments. Blogs are good to hold an archive of all your incident news, training, announcements, and other posts. If you use a blogging engine you should find an option to auto-post it to your Facebook Page so you'll only have to post to one location. Why turn on comments? If there's going to be any controversy, you want it to happen on your property where you control the conversation.

Content format - Share content with photos  

Facebook is all about photos and I recommend you post a photo for each item with the news you want to share in the caption. Facebook ranks photos better than plain links to external sites as they would prefer you to stay on their site, because of this links tend to go to a smaller proportion of your audience. 

Marc Healy - [D4H] Emergency Response Team Software Crew

Improving emergency response teams is why we built Decisions [D4H] click here to learn more.

Last November a couple of the crew at [D4H] visited Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg or the "Icelandic Search & Rescue Association" known as ICESAR in English for short. We've a lot of [D4H] users in Iceland, and it was a great opportunity to get out on the ice with them in some of their vehicles.

We hadn't gotten around to blogging about this trip yet. Iceland - what a country! These guys have some serious kit, and they need it - the environment is extreme. If you like big trucks, huge trucks, enormous trucks - visit Iceland. The next conference is 2014.

Common incidents in Iceland include all your typical missing person situations, but the technical calls are where it gets interesting. Iceland has large expanses of icecap and glacier that are big tourist and recreational attractions. It's a local pastime to own a big 4x4 and drive up the glaciers.

Some of the more interesting incidents we heard about were cars down crevasses, full vehicle extrications in the ice, and a technical rope access team needed to do it. Blizzards come in fast, and visibility and temperature drop with them. Tourists can become lost or separated and these special vehicles are what's needed.

These 4x4 are the closest things to 'ships on land' we've seen with marine GPS units, laptops mounted on the dashboard, and navigation. Designed for back-county travel with no roads or tracks driving a glacier is much like being at sea.

At the end of a tough shout you eventually have to go home. What ever your home circumstances are, the tough shouts will affect your home life. Here are some tips to helping yourself - though if your feeling like you need help - reach out - as your family deserve you to be in the best condition. 

This list is not exhaustive, nor does it constitute a full 360-degree support plan - but it does give some useful advice for what you can do to help yourself.  

Reach out - Sounds simple doesn't it? Talking about your problems, thoughts and confusions will let your friends & family know what's going on inside your head, and most importantly it will allow them to help you. 

Don't make big life decisions - Of course you wouldn't! Though your brain works in unusual ways. One example could be attending a death of a toddler and then inexplicably getting the need to have a baby with your partner or another one could be going out and spending $100,000 on a sports car because 'you only live once'.

Spend time doing the things that you enjoy - Refreshing and recharging your 'batteries' is important as it will allow you the important time that we all require to get yourself back to 100%. 

Avoid drugs and alcohol - Both of these affect your mood in the short and long term and there is a real risk of developing dependence. Don't add a substance abuse problem to the complicated situation you are already in. On top of this you should eat regular and balanced meals while maintaining your exercise program. 

Communication, understanding and patience - Your family and friends will experience many aspects of the disaster with you. Really work on keeping the communication lines open and both sides should be patient and understanding of the other. 

Managing your response team is the reason we developed Decisions [D4H] to learn more about Decisions [D4H] click here

Adam Scott - EMT & SAR Responder

Source 

Pop on the kettle, take off the PPE, throw the BSI gloves in the medical bin and sit back and enjoy the premier emergency response chat. Find out more at http://decisions.d4h.org

In this episode, Adam & Robin discuss ways to manage your personal mental health after an incident, The Moore Tornado in Oklahoma, Interview Seamus, a Surrey SAR member and talk about Robin & Marc's recent visit to Canada.

Following the devastating tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, charities are relying heavily on people's generosity to fund their relief efforts. Mobile payment technology or text message based donations coming from the public have made up a huge part of the funds donated.

Upon hearing of the devastation, calls to action were quickly sounded from relief organizations and celebrities alike encouraging text message-based donations to provide aid. When the phone user texts a unique "short code" to the charities custom five-digit telephone number, the charge for the donation is simply added to the customer's bill or deducted from their prepaid balance.

Requests to Text STORM to 80888 to donate $10 to the recovery and relief efforts referencing The Salvation Army's text-to-donate campaign, hit the twittersphere with an almighty roar and the same can be said for Text “REDCROSS” to 90999. In events like Oklahoma and super storm Sandy we get to see that people are inherently good and willing to help.

Threat to charities lifeline
This payment method is a huge benefit to nonprofits, however the underlying technology has come under threat by fraudsters. Regulators are concerned about an activity called “mobile cramming” a practice that uses the technology to add fraudulent charges to consumers' phone bill. This does not affect donation to relief efforts so DON’T WORRY.

This underhanded activity often occurs when people use their numbers to sign up for a service such as horoscopes, ringtones or trivia sent by text without their permission or knowledge, after which they get a stream of messages which bill the recipient. So read the fine print when giving your number to these services.

Hopefully regulators can remedy the problem with double opt-in requirement or obligatory unsubscription notifications. If not the bad apples could upset the cart. Mobile Giving Foundation CEO Jim Manis said "I don't want the philanthropic piece to be negatively tainted and if the premium space goes away, guess what? We go away, too. So there is a threat, if you will, to us,"

Marc Healy - [D4H] Crew

I’m happy to announce our new business relationship with Mario Vittone one of the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard's finest . Mario has had many roles over his illustrious career, possibly the most impressive being his time as a Helicopter Rescue Swimmer & Instructor for the U.S. Coast Guard at Port Elizabeth.

We are delighted to welcome Mario to the [D4H] crew, having his years of experience in maritime operations at our disposal is a great asset. Mario’s focus is on maritime safety, security and rescue. He is a leading expert on immersion hypothermia, drowning, sea survival and safety at sea. Mario’s most famous piece of writing “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning” is certainly worth a read, if you haven’t already.

We will be working with Mario to improve our offering to the maritime industry. With Mario’s input and our experience with the Irish Coast Guard, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, inshore rescue boats, and some large EU maritime safety agencies, we have a great foundation to springboard our growth into the maritime industry.

Mario is currently using our [D4H] Response Team product for his work with Maritime Safety Services, we hope [D4H] can help propel his new venture to great things. Mario is available through myself marc.healy@d4h.org for advice on how he is using [D4H] to better his response efforts.

We are now looking for another ambitious engineer to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse.

Job Description

Decisions [D4H] is a multi-award winning emergency response team management technology experiencing rapid growth around the world. Our international operation has had particular success and we are firmly committed to growing our capacity. We are now looking for another ambitious engineer to join our crew in the lighthouse - yes, we work in a lighthouse.

As our next hire you will be part of our small engineering team with a wide range of responsibilities and challenges. You will work closely with the rest of the team on all aspects of product development. As a [D4H] engineer you will have the opportunity to influence the design of our international infrastructure, our technology choices, our policies and procedures, and how we interact with our customers around the world.

Candidates should enjoy writing code each day, designing robust systems, working as part of a technical team, assisting end users, and continually learning and keeping their skills up to date.

Preference is given to those who can primarily work out of our offices in the Baily Lighthouse, Howth, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Exceptional remote candidates may be considered. http://lighthouse.d4h.org

Desired Skills & Experience

Strong PHP skills are necessary for the successful candidate to contribute to our large PHP codebase. Our primary datastore is MySQL and the ability to design, maintain and debug schemas and queries is an advantage. Other technologies we use at [D4H] include jQuery, Knockout.js, Redis for job queuing and message passing, Apache, Git for revision control, and CentOS on production servers. Our new product that is currently undergoing rapid development uses a number of HTML5 technologies including WebSockets, IndexedDB and AppCache.

We expect you to have examples of past web applications you have developed. You should be able to talk about these examples in detail and describe the design decisions, technologies used, mistakes made and lessons learnt. Particular emphasis is given to examples that demonstrate your strength in PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript.

Our Values

- Outcomes, not incomes: Success is measured by tangible human outcomes. The code you write will actually save lives - this is not a common opportunity. We ship insanely great stuff.

- Connections, not transactions: We encourage networking, co-creation, and collaboration. We champion the front-line responder by providing an incredibly deep and engaging technology experience for them.

- Creativity, not productivity: We create new value, not shift around the old. We work out of an actual lighthouse in Dublin Bay - come and see our creative culture for yourself. Don't forget your camera - the sunrise is awesome.

- People, not product: We invest in people and always give real responsibility. Our weekly 'Beer Call' is an open forum for sales, engineering, business, and international contacts to review and question the week’s activities.

Company Description

Decisions [D4H] is a collaborative emergency response team management tool that helps record and analyze operations, members, equipment, and training. It replaces the widely-used paper and spreadsheet formats and automates the entry of information using internet-connected computers, laptops, and consumer smartphone devices.

The tool uses this data algorithmically to deliver reporting, team management and intelligent information to the field, and information on- demand. Where required, outputs can be formatted for passing on to governing and compliance authorities.

Through intelligent collation of the data from the 'front-line', Decisions [D4H] facilitates extensive analysis, monitoring and scheduling of training, targeting of resource allocation and cost control.

To apply, email robin.blandford@d4h.org telling us about yourself with the subject "Application for Senior Web Application Developer".

Getting the most from your Decisions [D4H] account means that you need to know about the 'backend' of your account, but don't worry! We made customizing the team settings and modules simple. The 'Team Settings' controls everything from the information on your team, privacy settings and the external [D4H] widgets where as the 'Module Settings' allows you to turn on/off or customize those modules.  

To get to your team settings, you must have the 'Owner' permission level. To get to it, simply sign-in using your ResponderID and click on settings on the top right. You will then be directed to the below page:

Watch the video below to get a full walkthrough of what each area contain.

We have been supplying great blog posts for quite a while now - You may have been following our blog but still might not know everything about Decisions [D4H] - Multi Award Winning Emergency Response Team Software. Here are 4 facts about [D4H] that you may not know. 

1. We are just like our responders

Not many companies can actually claim (and prove) that they have deep rooted connections with their customers. The Decisions [D4H] software is designed with the end responder in mind and thats why the [D4H] crew consists of people who are actively involved with;

• Technical Rescue
• Fire Rescue
• Marine Rescue
• Hazmat Response
• EMS
• SAR 

2. Our HQ is in a lighthouse

In one of those madness vs genius moments, the [D4H] crew decided to move from a 'usual' office to a lighthouse. Yes, you read that right, we work in an operational lighthouse. All the modern office comforts you'd expect but with an unbeatable view. Check out the view of Dublin Bay, Ireland here. 

3. We take feedback seriously

While we follow our development plan in order to develop [D4H] in a logical and methodical approach, if you contact our customer support team with a request and the engineers agree that it is 'in the direction we are going' it is then logged for future reference. When that area of the software is being improved we will then implement the logged idea if possible. Did you know that 78% of support requests are answered within 8 hours? 

4. [D4H] helps you make real decisions

Unlike most databases [D4H actually helps you to improve your responses. Decisions [D4H] is a collaborative emergency response team management tool that helps record and analyze operations, members, equipment and training. It replaces the widely-used paper and spreadsheet formats and automates the entry of information using internet-connected computers, laptops and consumer smartphone devices.

To find out more about [D4H] simply download an information pack  or if your looking for a job - we are hiring.

Announcing the release of our newest edition [D4H]™ Hazmat. We have worked closely with Hazmat technicians to make our Hazmat Reporting module as user friendly as possible. I would like to extend a big thank you to all the Hazmat responders who contributed to our latest groundbreaking module.

[D4H]™ Hazmat Edition is specialized for hazardous material incidents at industrial facilities, railroads, highways, waterborne, pipelines, ports, aircraft, and clandestine labs including explosives, pharmaceuticals, narcotics, fuels, alcohol distillation, and weapons of mass destruction. Whether spilled or just threatening release; reacting, burning, over-pressurized or an actual explosion - you can now document all materials involved and their behavior within your [D4H]™ incident report.

[D4H]™ Hazmat Edition includes a pre-loaded database of over 700 of the most common chemicals  with auto-completion based on chemical name and CAS numbers. Our software allows you to analyze the frequency of hazards to help with decisions in equipment procurement and training by recording chemical formulas, UN numbers, explosive limits (LEL/UEL), flash points, IDLH, ionization, molar mass, specific gravity, solubility, boiling point, and vapor pressure.

Watch Video

Materials in the physical state of solid, liquid, or gas can be recorded by container type and capacity, noting markings, and transportation type. Vehicles involved in the incident may be added by using detailed pre-loaded categorizations of freight tankers, agricultural vehicles, waterborne vessels, and aircraft. Document licence plates, transportation licences, makes, models, manufacturing years, and notes including the transport providers insurance details.

Record Samples and Air Monitoring

If you have an unknown material on-scene - take a sample for testing and give it a reference number, note the date and time collected, and select the location on a map or enter street address. Document who took the sample, its final disposition, tracking number, and if the chain of custody was completed. In the case of air monitoring record the reading and auto-complete the instrument used to take it from your [D4H]™ Equipment Manager .

Successful Outcome

[D4H]™ will improve your team's overall performance - that may be to make the public safer, make your colleagues safer, save more lives, or to simply respond faster, better, stronger to corporate, industrial, or public safety incidents. We want to work with your team to ensure you operate to maximum capability.

View All Features 

How do I get this for my Hazmat team?
If you are interested in subscribing to the [D4H] Hazmat Edition, email marc.healy@d4h.org to discuss pricing. 

Decisions [D4H] has secured a lucrative five-year contract with the Government of Alberta, Canada for their innovative software which improves vital emergency response efforts. Details of the contract were announced earlier this week during the Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Western Canada, which was organized in close cooperation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Embassy of Ireland to Canada and led by the Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello TD.

Decisions [D4H] whose mission it is to ‘Save Lives’ by improving how response teams are managed, will provide its software to 40 Canadian Search & Rescue (SAR) teams in Alberta. These SAR teams serve a population of almost four million across a landmass over seven times the size of Ireland. The software, which was created in Ireland, allows SAR teams to manage their incidents, personnel and equipment, and submit reports to Alberta’s Provincial Government for the creation of shared statistics.

Robin Blandford, CEO for Decisions commented:

‘We are excited to begin the implementation of the [D4H] software across all the Canadian Search & Rescue teams in Alberta; we feel the software will greatly enhance the critical work they are doing. The teams that have been using [D4H] internationally are huge fans of the system using it to generate incident reports, flag emergency responses and provide them with an all encompassing management tool that spans their entire search and rescue team’.

Pictured L-R: Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello TD; Trent West, Alberta Fire Commissioner; Robin Blandford, CEO, Decisions and Brendan Flood, Divisional Manager, Enterprise Ireland.

Welcoming the announcement Minister Costello said:

‘Decisions [D4H] is a great example of an innovative, export-focused Irish company with a world-class product offering. Their success in securing this contract with the Government of Alberta demonstrates the quality of their technology and underlines Decisions’ continued success in export markets around the world. I commend them for their commitment to developing new markets and I encourage other innovative Irish companies to do the same with the support of my Department, our Embassy network across the globe and Enterprise Ireland’.

Since its foundation in 2008 Decisions [D4H] has expanded into 11 countries managing responders in Petrochemical, Energy, Mining, Fire, Hazmat, Maritime, Pharmaceutical production and Public Safety. In Ireland clients include the Irish Coast Guard and Irish Water Safety. Interestingly, Decisions [D4H] is headquartered at the Baily Lighthouse, Howth. Showing their company’s commitment to saving lives and getting ‘really close’ to their customers, this famous landmark has been preventing loss of life in Dublin Bay for over 200 years.

Ross O’Colmain, who heads up Enterprise Ireland’s office in Toronto, added:

'This agreement between Decisions and the Government of Alberta clearly demonstrates the opportunities that exist for innovative and ambitious Irish companies in Canada and around the world.’

For further information contact:

Marc Healy +353 1 525 2970 or marc.healy@d4h.org

Eileen Banks, Press Officer, Enterprise Ireland Tel: +353 1 7272805 Eileen.Banks@enterprise-Ireland.Com

About:

Multi-award winning Decisions [D4H] helps response teams save more lives, keep production-lines open, and implement precise prevention campaigns by making better decisions.

Decisions [D4H] is a response team management tool that helps record and analyze response incidents, members, equipment, and training. [D4H] automates and replaces the need for generic time consuming spreadsheet and word processing software, with a collaborative tool built with the end user in mind.

Decisions [D4H] are now exporting to 11 countries around the world. Their focus on delivering a product made for emergency responders by responders has seen the company grow from strength to strength.

http://www.d4h.org

Decisions [D4H] was one of 15 Irish companies participating on the EnterpriseIreland trade mission to Albertathis week, taking in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. Led by Minister Costello, the trade mission focused on building and cementing relationships with the natural resources industry and included a visit to the Gas and Oil Expo show, interactions with key multinationals, and senior political meetings on trade and economic cooperation.

With Government of Alberta purchasing [D4H] for their SAR rescue teams - Adam and Robin travelled to Calgary to train SAR Alberta members in the 'Decisions [D4H] Responder Trainer' course at the joint Calgary Fire Department Training & Canada Task Force 2 base. 

This was the first time that we had run the Decisions [D4H] Trainer course in person, as it is usually taken by individuals remotely. Needless to say - we were excited when all these SAR Alberta responders turned up for the course.

After the usual pre course chat about fire escapes etc(Not that anyone in this group needed it!)  - we got down to the trainer course which consisted of in depth discussions, practical demonstrations and tasking for each particular area of Decisions [D4H]. Needless to say when the group found out about the multiple choice question test at the end of the day- that required an 80% score to pass - a few nervous smiles appeared in the room. 

With the test complete, everyone satisfied with the course and vastly increasing the Decisions [D4H] Responder Trainers world wide, the (training) misson was completed. 

As many of you know an area of Alberta received 6 months worth of rain over a very short period which lead to major damage and 100,000 people being forced to evacuate. Some of the people we where training on this course have been directly involved with the rescue & relief efforts. To give people an understanding of the scale here is a pcutre taken by Jeff Adams via The Calgary Herald:

We wish all responders who have dealt with this flooding from the rescue stage to the now relief stage - the very best. We look forward to working with you in the future. 

We've added the ability to automatically generate reference numbers for your Incident, Exercise, and Event reports. This can be done across an entire organisation, or within a single team ensuring no reports have the same references. As a bonus, we've also added organization tracking numbers that allow you to match up multiple incident reports from different teams as the same incident at organization level.

When you add an incident, exercise, or event, you'll have a unique reference number automatically generated for you. Reference numbers are auto-incrementing, so there is no need to look up the last one used. Reference numbers can increment across just incidents, exercises, events, all activities types, your entire team, or an entire organization.

On the right, you can add in a short memorable text description to easily identify it - people often use incident type or location here. Clicking the reference number will allow you to edit it to a different one if you're not adding in the same order as they happened.

We'll check the reference number is unique for you. Different settings are available to check uniqueness across just incidents, exercises, or event categories, or across your entire team, or across your entire organization. 

Click [Generate Unique Number] if the one you chose was not unique and we'll make one for you.
 

We don't restrict your usage to any specific pattern, you're welcome to override our numbering system and use your own, e.g. '#220/13' (Incident 220 in the year 2013) or '#123a', '#123b' etc.

As a bonus, we've also introduced 'Tracking Numbers' to track unique activities where multiple teams are submitting reports, but you only want to count it as a single number in your national stats. Once the same reference is entered, as denoted by a central agency, all the matching reports will be linked at organization level.

These numbers can be custom labelled with the name used by the specific organization, e.g. 'Police File Number' or as below 'RCC (Rescue Coordination Centre) Number' to avoid any confusion by members.

How Do I Activate?

New Accounts - By default auto-incrementing numbers are 'on by default' for new accounts.

Organizations - Tracking numbers must be switched on at organization level, and are configured on your account by our support team.

Existing Accounts - Account owners should contact support@d4h.org to enable auto-incrementing reference numbers on your account. You should contact us with the following...

• Your team URL. i.e. teamname.d4h.org
• Your proposed configuration - i.e. unique across all reports, unique within each type of report (i.e. you can have Incident #5 and Exercise #5).
• Your proposed numbering system - i.e. based on date, number, pattern, any pre-fix / post-fix? We'll see what we can configure for you.
• Your starting number - i.e. what do you want the next report number to be?

As always, please share your feedback with us in the comments or direct to me in our open chat room.

Written by Robin Blandford, CEO.

Pop on the kettle, take off the PPE, Recharge your SCBA Cylinder, throw the BSI gloves in the medical bin and sit back and enjoy the premier emergency response chat. 

In this episode Adam talks about the Alberta Flooding and two of the teams connected to [D4H] who have been heavily involved with helping out. The Unique Incident Identification Numbers that was just released and he also interviews a Dublin Fire Fighter.

Today we're announcing our standalone Equipment & Asset Management tool. We've separated it out as its own product allowing teams or single users who don't need our full capabilities to purchase it without any complexity.

One of the most common reasons organizations purchase [D4H] is the mess their equipment is in. They're looking to get that part in order first, and don't need the other tools or complexity of our full suite. We've listened to this feedback and launched a separate standalone equipment manager available on its own. 

By entering your equipment information into [D4H] you can assign equipment to locations and personnel providing additional accountability. Track completion of repairs, location and the lifespan of your equipment. With [D4H] you can extend the life of your equipment and increase compliance by ensuring repairs and calibrations are complete.

We're told this is the standalone Equipment & Asset Management tool  for response driven organizations, so here's an overview of what's available.

Categories & Kinds

Organize your equipment by category and kind. Rather than just browsing by location, this allows you to navigate your equipment by its functional use. For example, no matter where it's stored, or what model it is, you can see your total quantities, weights, and values of items that perform the same function across your organization.

Locations & Inventories

Create containers for different equipment stores, caches, and locations. We've been really clever about this, and allow you to put equipment in equipment. For example, this will allow you to still manage inspections and service records on a vehicle, while separately managing all the equipment within it. We've a special bulk equipment mover, that will move all the contents with the parent item when you relocate it.

Supply Levels

We track disposable supplies such as single-use medical, chemical, and pollution equipment just as well as reusable items. Create special batches of supplies such as boxes of gloves, hazmat suits, etc. and we'll subtract from the total each time one is used in training, on incident, or at an event. Set minimum stock levels and we'll alert you as level approach their critical levels before reordering is needed.

Inspections

Create recurring equipment inspections for all of your items based on kind or location. e.g. Inspect all 'Lifejackets' in 'Boat C' once a month. We'll alert you by email that an inspection is due, and audit the result against each lifejacket as either Serviceable, Unserviceable, Repair Needed, or Lost. Inspection sheets can be printed and completed offline before being entered into the system once back at a desk. QR codes on printed reports help locate the correct digital version.

Repairs

Every item may have repairs logged tracking the reason the damage occurred, the repair cost, the work needed, the activity the damage occurred on, and the current status of the repair. Each repair may be assigned to a member, who'll be alerted by email. Once completed by the member, you'll receive an email to let you know it has been done. Items have running repair logs and total repair costs calculated against them.

Issued To Personnel

Equipment maybe removed from its location and issued to a person on your team. This is suitable for personal protective equipment such as helmets, harnesses, grab bags, etc. The equipment may still be inspected and monitored like the rest of your cache. When you issue a bag of equipment, we'll move the entire bag contents across to the member too.

Document Attachments

You may attach photos of items and models. This will display profile pictures for each item against them. Manuals, scans, and instruction documents may also be linked. Attaching the file to the model rather than the item will display it against all items of that model.

Funding Sources

Public safety organizations dependent on grants may attach a funding source to items of equipment. This allows statistics to be generated when the grant becomes renewable for submission on previous spending, equipment serviceability, and usage. Grant committees appreciate and look favourably that this level of detail has been recorded about the equipment purchased with their funds.

Usage Tracking

When writing your activity report, you may drag & drop the equipment used, marking number of hours, mileage, and disposable supplies used. This will update the records for all items, allowing you to see exact usage type of each item. Do you use it more on training than you do on incident?

Critical & Unserviceable

Equipment may be marked as serviceable and unserviceable. Each time an item becomes unserviceable we'll ask the user why, and a record is added against it. Track how many hours each item is unserviceable for, and how many of each kind you have serviceable at any time.

Barcode Scanner Compatible

The software is fully compatible with barcode scanners, and allows you to select equipment for bulk moving or usage at an activity using a barcode scanner.

Monitoring

Items that may be nearing end of life, or sustained damage you want to keep an eye on, may be marked as 'To Monitor'. This will create links to them on your dashboard, and add a notification icon to their profile & usage page.

Expiry Date Tracking

Each item may have a number of dates associated with it including manufactured, purchased, warranty, first use, retired, and expiry date. If an item reaches its expiry an email alert will be generated and the item will flag on your dashboard.

Vehicles

Vehicles may be created as a kind of equipment. Selecting this kind will allow the vehicle to record its mileage rather than hours used. An odometer may be entered, and all usage beyond a date logged will update that vehicle.

Lost Equipment

While undertaking inspections, or straight from the items page, you may mark an item as lost. This will add it to a list of equipment that has been misplaced and remove it from your available cache. If the item is located you may mark is back as operational.

View [D4H]™ Equipment Edition

Getting the most from your Decisions [D4H] account means knowing every part and how to use it to it's maximum advantage for your response team. In this post the [D4H] crew look at the 'Response Team' calendar and how to use the iCal feed to share it to your iPhone calendar.  We also have included quick instructions on how to add the iCal feed to Outlook and Google.

Here is the video for how to add the iCal feed to your iPhone. 

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Instructions

• From Tools menu select Account Settings
  
• Click on the Internet Calendars tab
  
• Click the New button
  
• Type or paste one of the calendar URLs above then click Add
  

• In the Subscription Options dialog box, you can optionally rename the calendar.  Make sure the box is checked in the Update Limit section.
  

Google Calendar Instructions

• To subscribe to an iCalendar feed using Google Calendar:
  

• In the left column, click on the Add link in the Other Calendars section.
  
• From the menu select Add by URL.
  
• Enter the feed URL in the dialog box then click Add Calendar.
  

Source  for Outlook and Google.

As we are just entering the aftermath stage of the Alberta Flooding and the crude oil train derailment - which saw large scale responses - It's important to ensure that our response team can meet the needs of the people/property we help - as well as the needs of our responders. The majority of these needs can be met by having good SOP's for the 'Response, Recovery, Mitigation and Preparation' stages. 

As we can see from this disaster management graphic from earthzine.org - an 'Event' such as the Alberta Flooding will trigger a response that will require emergency management and operations to be done - which will usually include;

- Warnings & evacuations. 

- Rescues. 

- Providing Immediate assistance. 

- Assessing damage. 

These stages will also have significant media attention, any mistakes/errors (perceived or real) may incur backlash from the public and draw your team/service into disrepute. 

Having  Pre-Event tasks completed such as;

- Pre- Event Activities such as 'home preparedness' awareness days or other public awareness campaigns, that would help instill preparedness in your populous is always a useful task.It may help alleviate the dependency on your team. On your response teams side, it could be planning appropriate personel scheduling all the way to ensuring that you have all the required stock levels for consumables.

- Mitigation/prevention - such as risk assessing area's and planning ways/methods to reduce the exposure to your team. 

Post-Event your team may look at;

- Providing Ongoing Assistance. 

- Assistance with the Restoration of Infrastructural Services, Resettlement & Relocation. 

Other agencies, In the Post-Event scenario, may assist with;

- Economic and Social Recovery. 

- Ongoing Development activities. 

- Conduct Risk Assessments of the Current/Future Situation.

On an ongoing basis your team should look at the 'Pre-Event, Response & Post-Event' and change the 'Event' area to 'Earthquake Event', 'Fire Event','Flooding Event' etc. Your team should look at how it would conduct it's self in the 'Response, Recovery, Mitigation & Preparation' stages and look to have solutions to fix any issues that could arise. This could be anything from alerting the populous to an 'Event', having correct staffing levels etc. Another task could be to look at how other agencies/stakeholders would fit in during each of the stages and how you could work together with them to achieve the common goal. 

Having an open and collaborative environment where teams can organise, plan, execute and record is the reasons we built Decisions [D4H] - Multi-Award Winning Emergency Response Team Software.

Written by Adam Scott, [D4H] Customer Success Dept, EMT & SAR Responder

Pop on the kettle, take off the PPE, Recharge your SCBA Cylinder, throw the BSI gloves in the medical bin and sit back and enjoy the premier emergency response chat. 

Adam discusses the increase in drownings in Ireland - due to the clement weather, and he showcases how the Irish Water Safety CEO John Leech is using [D4H] to collate data, identify likely area's and age groups in order to prevent/minimise future drownings. Adam also wonders about the role of Fire Fighters in the wake of the 19 'Hot Shots' killed in Arizona. The president of Calgary Search & Rescue also comes on the show to share his views of their recent deployment to the Alberta Floods. 

I've always been a big believer that being able to have a chuckle at a joke . Even during disappointing rescues recoveries humor is quite a useful and beneficial tool for the mental health of emergency responders. While we will always have the ultra serious and stiff upper-lipped responders who frown on jokes at hard times - I've always found the majority of responders enjoy a good black humor. This short article looks at the benefits of humor for responders. 

'I always wanted to be a Paramedic - but never had the patients'

First off, having a laugh is not about being a 'joker' or a person who is a complete fool. It's about making reference to 'chuckable' and humorous jokes at the appropriate (or even slightly inappropriate) time. Just remember to be mindful that your teams humor may not travel well outside your organization to members of the public, other teams etc. 

Laughter is strong medicine for mind and body 

As stated by healthguide.org - Laughter is a great antidote for stress, pain and conflict. It has been shown to relax the whole body, boost the immune system, release endorphins and protect the heart. It can also help with shifting peoples perspectives on a subject and dissolve distressing situations. 

Making that joke will benefit yourself and the members who hear it - increase morale in the tough times and allow you to get perspective at time when you need it. Why wouldn't you want to crack a joke?

Even the boss has to have a sense of humor

Nowadays, leaders are not expected to sit at the back and bark orders, they are expected by their team (within reason) to be part of the solution to completing a task. This means having people skills among the obvious job skills - nothing shows people skills like being able to have a joke at situations, others and most importantly themselves. As Between Us Helpline states - 'Leaders like the ones I just explained, will help build up trust throughout the team and when the atmosphere is light, the creative juices will flow and good bonding will happen between the team.' Apart from the hard skills - a team needs to feel like a team. Being able to have a chuckle will help with this. 

Don't get it wrong

Black humor can be an acceptable form of humor - in fact I know a lot of great responders who use it to help them and others deal with tough situations. One thing all these responders have in common is they never go too far - going to dark, stating (too) offensive jokes and just telling a downright bad joke can be destructive to team morale and affect people's outlooks. If you wouldn't want to explain the joke to your mother ( or your other halfs pious mother) - it's probably better to keep it to yourself. 

Written by Adam Scott, EMT & SAR Responder. 

Decisions [D4H] was designed to help improve Emergency Response Teams. Find out more here.

Getting the most from your Decisions [D4H] account means knowing every part and how to use it to it's maximum advantage for your response team. In this post we look at how to get the most out of the scheduling. 

Those settings will throw up 'Warning Flags' if too many operational members go Off-Call for a certain period. As a person in charge you will be able to add other people's 'Off-Calls'. You can state what time period, if it repeats, add a note and select multiple people as can be seen below. 

On the Main 'On-Call Planner' page you can view the scheduling of members for the next 30 days, how many people are requested, the levels and also it allows you to edit each members Off-Call. 

Any questions on the 'Off-Call Planner' can be directed at support@d4h.org