huh?

this booklet was put together rapidly by grace keller of the action medical protocols and methods (am/pm) project for a brief training at occupy tampa. its purpose is to help any member of the occupation deal with social problems more effectively. ideally, everybody can run with a buddy, know how to de-escalate, help each other make difficult decisions, help each other change when we are acting or feeling fucked up (or this fucked up world just hasn't changed enough yet), and help each other debrief.

this guide is written from a background of 10 years as a street medic, 9 as a street medic trainer, 8 as a street clinician, 7 as a community health worker. I love the medics, that's my people, but we don't have it all figured out. legal, security, and people with other competencies might do this stuff way differently than this booklet suggests. other medics definitely do it differently.

the skills in this guide are not a big secret. programs from women and queer self-defense classes to homeless outreach programs to the police use de-escalation techniques like those in this guide. human service workers get motivational interviewing shoved down their throats at compulsory continuing education classes.

the good of all this is that you can find local people who are very good at these skills. a quick google search ("de-escalation," "motivational interviewing," even "affinity groups") can turn up thousands of free online trainings, youtube videos, and readymade training handouts to help you develop your knowledge.

a big difference in our rad rad rad community is we're not mis-using this stuff as some kind of sneaky way to get somebody else to do what we want (like cops often use de-escalation, and drug counselors often use motivational interviewing), we're using this stuff to solve our own internal problems and fucked up dynamics, claim more self-reliance, and work together at least as long as we occupy together. this is our comrades, not suspects or clients or patients or "problem people."

still, crisis skills alone don't lay the groundwork for a better society. examining our own and each other's hearts, being real with each other and humble when somebody calls us on our shit, learning from each other, and knowing when to go home and get some rest -- all of this and more is necessary. it's not in a workshop, it's in what y'all already doing, tampa!

you can teach this stuff and you can do it, independently or as part of a working group. health is self-reliance, in the streets and in our neighborhoods.

much love,

grace

(see medic.wikia.com for more)