The Easiest Way To Cover Safe Swim Defense Part E: Personal Health Review (Part 1)

After covering the first foundational point of the SSD principles next up is that of "Personal Health Review" or according to the "SMALLBAD" nemonic it is known as "Medical". Many people really question why the health review or medical evaluation are a critical point to ensuring a as safe as possible aquatic outing just doesn't make sense, seems to cause too much of a burden, looks like overkill. Yes its not easy getting all the paperwork done in order to fully follow this point of SSD but because of how society is doing in regards to personal health and the continuing decline of people with few medical issues it has become even more necessary than ever to know the hidden medical conditions & symptoms as well as how to appropriately respond to that medical emergency. More or less a couple of quick examples of conditions that poise more concerns than in other activities include conditions like:

1. Epilepsy: A Seizure Disorder is a disorder in which people have regular seizures that are not because of a prior or already existing medical condition that has seizures as a sign or symptom of the other condition.
2. Asthma: Especially sports-induced-asthma are at a higher level of risk because its very easy to become overwhelmed, be in a state of shock, or to cause breathing problems  such as hyperventilation, irregular rhythm, or other changes that do not seem normal for the person based upon their physical condition and what they are participating in.
3. Allergies: In regards to allergies its true that all allergens can result in serious medical issues or even death. For those who don't always have life threatening symptoms should still treat the condition as a medical emergency. Besides minor reactions that result in complications or even possibly death. Death for allergic reactions don't occur very often but when they do their tends to be a lot more dissemination of the information around the news
4. Others: These are just three of the medical conditions or issues that are known to cause enough concerns to be specifically mentioned in the SSD material.

Well for right now thats pretty much it when it comes to what I wanted to cover in this post today but in regards to the next 3 or 4 posts I will be taking all of the conditions that are mentioned in the SSD information section in the "Aquatics Supervision Manual" and exploring what it is, the body's reaction, how does it occur and what potential safety hazards that should be considered when making a determination about whether it is or isn't safe to participate. Beyond that at the even of this part we will do a walk through of the Annual Health Record Form and some administrative & policy information for the form.

As a reminder teaching the youth what needs to be known about the SSD principles is much simpler than having to provide all this information thats being covered but as leaders and supervisors in the unit we must be ready and able to respond correctly and quickly to as many questions as possible without having to look up each questions answer should be.

Yours in Scouting Service

Mark West

Assistant Scoutmaster

Troop 1316, Troop 1616(aka 669), Troop 125

Tustumena District/ Denali District/ Eklutna District, Great Alaska Council

NSJ '05 Youth Participant NSJ '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff NSJ '13 Subcamp Staff

WSJ '07 Youth Participant WSJ '11 International Service Team(IST)

Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Honor Big Horn Denver Area Council NYLT QM

Philmont AA '08

If you are paid to do Scouting, you are called a professional. If you are not paid to do Scouting, you are called a Volunteer. If you pay to do Scouting, then you are called a Scouter.