Medic-alert not exactly a radical idea

By | | , , , , ,
Comments Off on Medic-alert not exactly a radical idea

Today I witnessed what could only be described as a furious shitstorm via my lesser used Facebook feed. It contains a vast majority of highly opinionated, self-righteous do-gooders and as such I tend to avoid checking in and reading it. But today was not one of those days and I logged in to find a steady stream of outrage regarding the comments made by Chamali Fernando, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Cambridge.

For those who haven’t yet read the story, it can be read here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/calls-for-conservative-parliamentary-candidate-chamali-fernando-to-stand-for-saying-mentally-ill-people-could-wear-wristbands-10176267.html

And here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-32299433

And also here: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge-candidates-clash-claims-people-mental/story-26329803-detail/story.html

You get the gist. Almost every article almost instantly descends in to a Godwin’s Law frenzy of Nazi comparatives and public outcry. But people seem to be missing the point. She didn’t say that we should colour code all mentally ill people, hand out handy “how to spot a nutter and identify them by colour code” guides and declare it open season to hunt them down and berate them publicly. She didn’t say it should be compulsory requirement or that it need be a wristband at all. What she suggested was that members of society with invisible illnesses (as that seems to be the new buzzword these days) or commonly misinterpreted behaviours due to illness should perhaps think about carrying some form of easily identifiable identification in case of emergency, or misidentification in a situation where perhaps they are unable to identify themselves or inform people of their needs. The key part of it being voluntary. Which is ironic, as when a politician suggests it, it’s criticised and they’re called upon to resign, bombarded with hate and abuse. Yet we’ve been colour coding ourselves in this respect for some time now. You can already purchase colour coded disability wristbands for sufferers, supporters and the like. Charity ribbons – colour coded for awareness. We’re more than happy to wear these pointless bloody things in the guise of raising awareness or promoting acceptance, but when it’s suggested that we perhaps consider carrying a card or a bracelet if we suffer from an invisible illness, which could greatly impact how people react towards somebody in an emergency situation, it’s suddenly bigoted and promotes segregation and stigmatises mental illness?
There’s even a handy guide already available to the deciphering of such colour codes, which we’ve already voluntarily implemented upon ourselves! http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/awareness/ribbons.php

It only takes a second to type it in to Ebay and find all sorts of ‘gift ideas’ of pre-produced silicone wristbands and metallic jewellery for the sick and disabled. A quick search has already brought up medical ID bands for: Epilepsy, allergies, pacemakers, dementia, autism, bipolar disorder, bleeding disorders, diabetes, COPD, post-traumatic stress disorder, high cholesterol, narcolepsy, cerebral palsy, vertigo, claustrophobia, ADHD, dyslexia, migraines, sleep apnoea, Asperger’s, warfarin users, transplant patient, asthma, gastric bypass, attention deficit disorder, dialysis patient, pregnancy, deafness, stroke, Parkinson’s, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, angina, emotional support dog ID tags, panic attacks, hypoglycaemia, osteoporosis, colitis, chemotherapy, arthritis, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression and finally, admittedly it is a joke listing, but; man flu. Most of which are available in both child and adult sizes – even the PTSD, migraines, schizophrenia and bipolar ones. For kids.
As you can see, we clearly have no problem with labelling ourselves and our children with brightly coloured tags, labels and diagnostic bracelets already. The market already exists where you can flog them to the more than willing mentally ill public who are obviously so clearly against the idea that they’ve voluntarily gone as far as creating a database of colour codes for easy reference and created themselves a mass market of unwell and disordered people chomping at the bit to purchase colour coded medical branding jewellery.

But wait, I thought that we didn’t want to stigmatise people by suggesting the wearing coloured jewellery to make people more aware of their needs!
“But, but… Oh no, it’s voluntary, they’ve chosen to wear it, for raising awareness!” you say?
…What, just like Ms. Fernando suggested? Voluntary identification methods for those most vulnerable and likely to be involved in a situation where it would be seriously bloody useful to know in advance that they’ve got a medical condition? Like the aforementioned Medicalert type bracelets already worn by people with diabetes, epilepsy, HIV+, autism. Like the medical cards held in the wallets of so many people with various conditions in which it becomes incredibly important to know such things when dealing with them in a situation where perhaps they are unable to communicate themselves? What a dreadful idea that’d be, being able to best assist a person in need of urgent care and attention in the most suitable manner in a prompt and timely manner because of a medical ID card or alert bracelet? Shocker. It’s a method which has been used voluntarily for years. Even in hospitals: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/nyregion/25bracelets.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 where emergency workers in the USA have been using them for some time now to facilitate better front line patient care.

I don’t believe for a minute that she was implying we tattoo a diagnosis across the foreheads of every person suffering from mental illness, nor force them to wear a glaring, shiny, neon colour coded tag whenever they leave the house. Perhaps a better worded headline for the newspapers would have been “Conservative candidate supports the use of carrying emergency medical ID for high risk patients” or “Conservative candidate in shock common sense suggestion to carry relevant medical information with you when out and about.” But then that isn’t quite as catchy as “Conservative candidate is a mental illness hating Nazi” now, is it? People complain enough when their illness or disability is overlooked or lacks acceptance, yet they will go out and purchase these things by themselves only to then go screaming and crying “injustice!!!” the minute someone healthy suggests to them it’s a good idea to carry such forms of ID in case they’re involved in a scenario where it’d become potentially lifesaving to be carrying it. Would they rather not and just be treated as if they weren’t disabled or ill? Because we cannot adjust to every single possibility when it comes to emergency patient care or split second crisis management decisions, as specific care for one disorder may kill someone with a different disorder. If you need special treatment, make it known, because we’re not mind readers and you’ll be treated as if you’re perfectly normal unless it is otherwise made clear, as that’s the only way to ensure consistent and high level of successful intervention and most appropriate treatment to the vast majority of people in emergency situations right across the board. There are ways and means to facilitate the passing of information in such situations. It need not be a flashing neon wristband like everyone has jumped to the conclusion of. There is already the universally recognised medical alert symbol, which needs not disclose your condition to all and sundry, but merely makes the observer aware that there is a medical condition to be aware of – and usually the required information is inscribed discretely behind the bracelet or necklace, or is written on a card in the person’s wallet. Not on display for all to see. If you’ve a condition where you’re so worried about how you may be treated in an emergency or crisis situation, do yourself a favour and don’t blame those trying to help you – instead, make that information easily accessible when it is required – be it a small medical alert charm, wristband or necklace, a key ring or a card in the wallet. Nobody can realistically complain when people are injured or killed in emergencies due to ‘inappropriate’ responses regarding invisible medical conditions if the sufferer themselves doesn’t at least make an effort to make it visible when it matters.

– Drunken Ptarmigan

-4

Of Flags and Chavs and charters

By | | , , , , ,
Comments Off on Of Flags and Chavs and charters

Once more it seems Labour are in the news for thinking that flying the English flag is racist, now the article concerned is an old one but signs are the view it expresses isn’t. Though of course the candidate concerned has since claimed they no longer hold those views, but as that’s rejected when it comes to UKIP candidates and the like I see no reason to accept it from a candidate for one of the established parties. The article has prompted Mr Farage to say that “Labour hate England”. I think he’s actually wrong on that and also doesn’t go far enough. For my money I think the problem is more that many people who see themselves as liberal and progressive , especially but not exclusively amongst those on the left, hate the English – or at least have a very strong dislike for them. It’s not England that they dislike so, it’s the English and English values which are of course notoriously difficult to pin down – so I’m not going to even try. I will though observe that the idea of flying the national flag is considered fine in Scotland and Wales and pretty much everywhere else it’s just the English flag that’s the problem. When you look at the comments made about the flying of the English flag it usually become rapidly apparent that behind that objection is a dislike for the sort of people they think are the types to want to display the flag. Given that the people normally making this assumptions are usually very quick to say that we mustn’t judge other groups by the actions of a few members (“not all muslims” et al.) why the exception for the English? Even amongst the allegedly tolerant alternative cultures (of which I count myself a part) there is a dislike of the stereo typically working class English based on the actions of a very few, so much so that they want laws against them. Again this is a group that is usually quick to object when anyone stereotypes any other group, but Toffs and Chavs are fair game, and those two groups are possibly the most typically English (albeit at opposite end of the spectrum).

Now there are many people who have pondered why there is such a dislike for the English, and some of their ideas suggest to me that they need to loosen their tin foil hats – however what ever the reason there does seem to be a dislike of things traditionally English. While Great Britain as a whole has done some terrible things in the past, things that certain regions like to now claim were all the doing of the English, we’ve also achieved wonderful and brilliant things – the 800th anniversary of one we celebrate this year. These achievements we hear far less of, it’s almost as if there is a plan to destroy all pride in being English – so much so conspiracy starts to seem like the sensible option. Now before someone chimes in and says that pride in one’s nation is a bad and foolish thing, first tell me why it’s seen as acceptable for the Scottish, for example, to be proud of their identity? Also if we shouldn’t be proud for the good our nation has done in the past then why should we be ashamed and apologise for the bad? If I was a suspicious type I could quite easily start to buy into the idea that our political masters are afraid of the English, the Scots and the Welsh seem to be happy to vote for more and more state control, the English less so. Perhaps we should still believe that desire for liberty, for freedom from repression, to fairness, justice and being left the hell alone still burns deep. that though is probably just playing to out dated stereo types and poetic fiction, right? Probably just me – we can ignore all the stirring verse and prose written in testament to it over the years as mere aberration.

The thing that made me really wonder about this was something surprisingly small, I wanted to buy a poster sized copy of the Magna Carta. This being the 800th anniversary of said document you’d have thought it would be surprisingly easy, I know I did. Oddly though the Magna Carta trust doesn’t sell one for less than £1,500, the British Library doesn’t sell one at all though it will sell you a replica of the American constitution. In fact, finding a decent size proper replica of this great document to buy in England turns out to be quite a challenge, it’s easier to find place to buy posters of the American constitution. The Americans will sell you a poster of our Magna Carta, but few places in the UK and of those even fewer and actual facsimile rather than a small twee poster. This seems incredibly strange to me especially given the year, is this great pillar of our country something to be hidden? (For the record I found a decent version over at Media Store House).

It really does make one start to think that for some reason there is a concerted effort to erase the English in all but name from the world, such thoughts though surely call for a tin foil hat. As ever when it comes to matters of English pride and the flying of our flag I shall leave the last word to Show of Hands.

-3

Digital glory holes

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Digital glory holes

A bit of a break from politics as articles about burying USB sticks in walls are once more doing the rounds. These are not new articles, they just seem to get picked up and re-circulated every now and again. So far I’ve not seen any of the these USB sticks, I suspect I don’t frequent areas with a high enough hipster quotient. To save you reading the article the theory is something like this – it allows for an anonymous off-line file sharing mechanism. So a bit like the old hiding messages in walls that I read about in something like the ladybird book of spy craft many years ago – except it’s less useful and more dangerous.

Just in case you are for some reason thinking it’s a good/cool idea or even worse are considering using such a thing consider this. Unless you encrypt the data you put on the stick it may be modified, even if you encrypt it, it may be removed by anyone and if you want to share with specific people you have to communicate with them as to which USB stick you’ve put the data on. If you’re going to communicate a location with them you may as well just hide an SD card or USB stick somewhere only they know so there’s more hope they’ll actually get the data. About the only thing that these public drop boxes are useful for when putting data onto them is to share data with random strangers who might happen to check the USB-wall you’ve used. Not the most effective mechanism for sharing ideas especially when you consider that the people using these USB-walls are probably not the sharpest tools in the box.

Now you may think that’s a little unfair of me, as the idea sounds cool a bit like a lucky dip or a treasure hunt – who knows what you’ll find. Well a lucky dip is a good analogy as long as you like your lucky dips randomly laced with broken glass, razor blades and other such things. The problem is you don’t know who’s put what on the USB stick you’ve connected to and well not everyone in the world has benign intentions. Consider that you’ve no idea what may be on the stick you connect to, the only way you can find out is to copy the data to your own device, now consider that possession of certain digital files is a strict liability offense – still want to check what’s been left on a random USB device plugged into a wall? Of course it’s not just files of dodgy content that you need to worry about, there’s also your usual malware and viruses including unfixable attacks or perhaps the USB connector you see isn’t actually a USB stick but something more malevolent that might fry your laptop.

So if anyone you know shares an article saying what a cool idea these wall embedded USB sticks are please slap them upside the head with a clue-by-four and tell them not to be so stupid.

-3