Ao3 unit 18

The following outdoor activities, can be one way in which people involved in the public service sector can gain experience and benefits from, which will in turn, give them some important skills needed for their jobs. In this task I will explain how outdoor activities may work alongside public services. Cave rescue Cave rescue is one public service which can benefit from individuals taking part in outdoor activities. Cave rescue involves the rescue of individuals who have been injured, trapped or got lost in a cave. Here, they can be medically seen to and/or rescued from different wilderness and cave environments. Due to cave rescue being such a highly specialised service, which includes areas from confined space rescue to fire fighting, there are special skills required to be a cave rescuer as the conditions in which you are working in are a lot more challenging than that of an ordinary everyday life situation. This means your usual emergency services may not be skilled enough for this profession. Therefore, outdoor activities can increase the skills of a cave rescuer and therefore, help them in their job. These can include: y Rock climbing: this activity will give the cave rescuer an experience of challenging environments, as they will require a lot of strength and perseverance in order to climb the wall. This will be useful for their job as both skills will be needed when rescuing a person from a cave. y Caving: this will obviously give the individual the first-hand experience of how a cave environment will be, such as how small the confined space will be when going to rescue someone, and they will be able to see if they could cope with the conditions. If caving with other people they could challenge themselves by working as team and using a good practice of communication. Both will be needed when in cave rescue in order to rescue the individual safely and in the best way. Real life example: Gerald Moni from McBrides Cave in Alabama in 1997. Moni and his group entered McBrides Cave in flood stage A flash flood caused the situation in the cave to become extremely hazardous. While attempting to negotiate a pit being inundated with a high flow of water, Gerald mistakenly grabbed only one of two ropes necessary to descend the pit. The resultant fall to a ledge part way down the drop resulted in a broken femur. A few members of the group managed to negotiate the lower stream passage before it slumped and reached the surface. The others remained with Moni until local rescue agencies could mobilise and attempt a rescue. Rescue teams spent hours waiting for the water levels in the cave to recede enough to attempt an extraction. When teams finally reached Moni, he had been exposed to frigid water for over 12 hours. Rescue teams risked drowning themselves and Moni while traversing the flooded lower cave. 18 hours after his fall Gerald was returned to the surface alive. Mountain rescue Mountain rescue is a public service which involves the search and rescue activities that occur in a mountainous environment. The difficult and remote nature of the environment in which

mountain rescue often occurs means that a variety of different skills and techniques will be needed in order to practice the service to the best of their ability, furthermore, many mountain rescuers who are hired tend to volunteers and individuals who are experienced mountaineers and climbers as they have gained the specific knowledge needed. Therefore, many outdoor activities such as below will benefit mountain rescue: y Mountaineering: this will give first- hand experience to the individual of the terrain of a mountain and the conditions they might have to face when attempting a rescue. As it is directly involved with mountains the individual taking part will learn all the basic skills of athletic ability, being able to climb for a long and also the technical knowledge of a mountain. y Skiing: this will give you the confidence in dealing with slippery terrains for example on ice or snow, which a mountain rescuer may experience. Therefore skiing would give excellent benefits as it will provide them with agility and techniques which will help if the individual needs to move into or along a tricky place upon the mountain. This would involve how a person would need to move their body to ensure they do not put themselves in danger and to also get the job done by getting to their target. Real-life example: South Cariboo Search and Rescue (SAR) responded to a callout from RCMP to Windy Mountain on New Year's Day to help look for three missing snowmobilers. got into trouble on the mountain when they ran into some terrain with deep snow and windfall trees that left them trapped, says SAR search manager James Seeley."They were unfamiliar with the area and got into some terrain they couldn't get out of." The RCMP called out SAR at about 8 a.m. on Jan. 1, which dispatched 13 members, six with snowmobiles and others performing roadblocks on Judson and 8200 roads and other search support activities. With valuable assistance provided by about 16 members of the Interlakes Snowmobile Club, Seeley says three, six-member search teams on sleds were deployed along the locations on the mountain where the missing men were believed to have been travelling. http://www.100milefreepress.net/news/136621413.html Life boat rescue: A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. ) is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. Lifeboat rescue would require specific needs in order for a rescue to take place, these would include skills and knowledge about the water and of how to operate a boat. So, if a person was wanting to become a life boat rescuer the person hiring would favour a person who has skills in working with boats and extreme conditions of water, which may be gained from activities such as: y Scuba diving: by a lifeboat rescuer taking part in scuba diving this will help them if they were in a situation where they are needed to swim underwater. It will mean they have the ability be confident whilst swimming underwater and also will provide them with orientation in a difficult situation.

Kayaking: this will give the person of life boat rescue a better understanding of a wider range of boats, in extreme conditions of water. This means that they can tailor the skills and experiences they have gained from kayaking to their lifeboat rescue, meaning they will be better prepared for any challenges they are faced with. Sailing: again this would mean the individual will have experience upon a boat and how to manoeuvre the boat on the water. It will also enable them to have experience of the technology used for mapping where you are at sea and orientation of the sea, meaning you will be able to know where the nearest coast was. Real Life example: On Tuesday 24 June 2008, three men aboard a boat from theport of Brixham in Devon were forced to abandon ship as their vessel sank with no time to position the liferaft. They had to tread water until the vessel was fully submerged, allowing the liferaft to be released. Fortunately, the vessel had the RNLI s MOB Guardian system aboard. The RNLI was alerted to the crew s plight at 6pm and immediately spoke with the Coastguard, which requested the assistance of the RNLI St Peter Port lifeboat from Guernsey to search for the missing vessel and her crew. Using the last MOB Guardian-verified position, and taking into account weather and tides, the lifeboat crew worked out the likely position of the fishing vessel. At the time, the lifeboat was on exercise only 12 miles from the predicted position, and the fishermen were found in a liferaft at 6.50pm, 5 miles south south west of Sark.

RAF mountain rescue: This is similar to that of the mountain rescue. A RAF mountain rescuer would need to have experience in conditions that are dangerous. This is because of the United Kingdom are contain much formerly glaciated terrain with steep cliffs; slopes, high peaks and generally experiences a sub-Arctic climate at relatively low altitudes. They also experience weather of Snow and high winds. Therefore, like the mountain rescue, mountain climbing activities, would provide the rescuer with the basic skills of tackling a mountain, being able to face the tough terrains whilst carrying out the task of rescuing someone. Also again, skiing will help during the snow and slippery surfaces. Abseiling may also be of use as if a mountain rescuer needed to go down a steep of vertical part of the mountain they would have the technique and even the knowledge of how to use equipment in order to go down the vertical drop. They could even apply this knowledge to a tougher situation, whereby they may not have the proper equipment, needed to abseil down the part of the mountain, instead using what they have to make do. These activities will also enable the service provider to be quick-thinking needed in these crucial situations of rescue. If someone was to be hired to be a RAF mountain rescuer they would expect to see some experience of dealing with extreme conditions and useful equipment, therefore, these activities will be useful. Real life example: The RAF kilnoss team was involved with the Cairngorm Disaster in 1971, when 6 edinburgh school children and 2 instructors went missing on the cairngorm plateau in bad weather. The team found two survivors barely alive, who needed immediate recovery to survive. On

member flew the RAF helicopter to the scene due to the weather the helicopter had to land on a white out and the member of the team had to wade the last mile through snow, and carry the survivors to the helicopter. They were all evacuated and made a full recovery. Coast guard rescue A coast guard or coastguard is a national organisation which involves various services at sea. It involves also different responsibilities such as Search and rescue, enforcement of maritime law, Safety of vessels, maintenance of seamarks and border control. When coming to the rescue side of being a coast guard, outdoor activities will be beneficial to this service as it requires a range of different skills. y Mountaineering: this will enable the individual to gain experience of orientation, which is useful in the search and rescue part of the job. It will also prepare them for dealing with tough conditions by the coast with may involve bad weather and also steep, slippery, or rough grounds and hills. y Abseiling: if there is a steep hill or long vertical drop along the coast, where the coast rescuer is needed to pass it in order to do their job, then the skills and techniques leant in abseiling can be used in a given situation for the rescuer. y Sailing: this will give them the experience on a boat, meaning they can operate and manoeuvre a boat on the sea, and also experience the conditions they may face. This will be a benefit due to the fact that during a coast rescue it may require the aid of a boat out at sea to rescue an individual. Real life Example: Coastguards coordinate rescue of rower in Portsmouth Harbour in hazardous weather conditions. At 11:26am a member of a local Sailing Club in Portsmouth Harbour informed the Coastguard at Lee on the Solent of a person in a small dark dinghy rowing against the wind. They had lost sight of the dinghy and were concerned for the welfare of the rower in light of the appalling weather conditions they were experiencing. Coastguards at Lee on the Solent requested assistance from the Queens Harbour Master at the Portsmouth Naval Base, who tasked an MOD police launch and police RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat). Solent Coastguard also scrambled the local Coastguard rescue helicopter to the scene. The rower was located on the mud by the police RIB; his overturned dinghy nearby. He was then taken by Coastguard rescue helicopter to Queen Alexandra Hospital, suffering from hypothermia http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/newsandpublications/pressreleases.htm?id=35D4B2839D924811&m=1&y=2012 Assistance in emergency situations: Emergency situations will include the army, police, fire and rescue and ambulance services. All of these require similar skills when face with different situations within their jobs and outdoor activities can assist these situations. y Outdoor activities that put the individual in dangerous or extreme conditions such as caving, rock climbing and mountaineering will be beneficial to emergency services. This is because the service provider will never know which situation and environment they will have to face that day and need to be prepared for extreme conditions, like a fireman will need to be confident in confined spaces in order to go into a burning house to

rescue someone. This will make them more aware of their surroundings when faced with a difficult environment. Activities such as rock climbing, abseiling and scuba diving may give the service provider physical strengths needed for their job, as they will constantly be on the move and need to keep up with the events of an emergency, in order to carry out their job efficiently. These activities will keep them fit as well as making them agile, confident with heights for example and fearless. Being fearless will prepare them for many upcoming events they may be involved in from crime to injuries.