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Beiträge, die mit recovery getaggt sind

#Karstmas day 7

Sorry for the delay folks, today was quite busy with a callout with the K9 SAR team. Happy ending!

So this prompted me to write a bit about safety in caving today, in particular with vertical caves (pits). This is quite the famous pit in Alabama, it's on like every top 5 list to visit (best views, best hikes, best waterfalls, best cave...every clickbait list this cave is on). What is unique about it, is that there is a horizontal walk-in entrance as well, where you can get to this view. This is both good...and bad.

When I started caving many moons ago, this cave was privately owned. So only cavers knew about it, and got permission by directly asking to go. Now, it is owned by a cave conservancy, and is much more open to visitation, just requiring a permit which is free and easy to fill out online. This is good - it lets lots of people enjoy this amazing view you think you'd have to travel far away to see. This is also bad - despite having to check off many things when you get the permit, no one *actually reads*, and as a result...well.

See that nice round rock middle bottom? We all call that "The Pedestal". You can climb the rock down to it, the slippery wet rock over a 40+ foot drop. You aren't supposed to free-climb here, but *everyone* does for their Instagram photo.

I'll make this simple: Never be closer than 6 feet (2 meters) from an edge without being tied in to a safety line. If the edge is sloped to the drop-off, that edge starts at the *top of the slope* where if you fell, you could keep rolling. Great rule of thumb for any edge, whether cliff or cave.

In this case, once you are on the Pedestal, you're okay on a section of it. But if you are climbing the rock up to the right, or wanting to go further down, you need to be tied in. People also like to stand at the pit entrance and lean over to look - there's a small tree on the steep slope they hold onto to do so. Yikes!

Guess who has personally been on the team, not once, but TWICE, that has bagged & pulled bodies out of this pit? Yeah. Coroners do not rappel into caves, cave rescue takes the body bag in, documents & photographs, and pull it back out. So, be safe please, around edges. Don't turn yourself into chunky jelly.

It's not worth the photo.

Now this place has a bunch of signs, but, people do stupid shit they aren't supposed to anyway. So I don't go anymore. Not because of the bodies - I have medical background and am not phased doing that stuff - but because I don't want to *watch* people be stupid. It gives me too much anxiety, and ruins my day. Shame, as it really is gorgeous and it used to be an annual summer trip.

So. Be smart. Be safe. Pick living to see more wonderful things over a single moment's photo.

#cave #caves #caving #safety #rescue #recovery #geology #karst #cliff #climbing
A massive cave chamber with clearly an opening in the ceiling letting in both light, and a massive waterfall. The rock is steep and stepwise, some of it covered in moss. Center lower middle is a very round rock that looks like a nice pedestal. A lone dark figure rappels into the cave, providing scale, near the top where the light is.
#climbing #geology #safety #rescue #recovery #karstmas #cave #caves #caving #karst #cliff

Okay, so: Peer Support is a thing.

It's not widely known, and it's IMPORTANT.

A Peer Support Specialist reaches across, not down. Non-hierarchical-- that's literally a requirement spelled out in the job description.

We close the liminal space between "patient" and "well person". We bridge the gap between the person receiving care and their therapist/doctor etc. We're the people you want knocking on the door when you're having a major personal crisis-- you know, instead of the people with guns. We've lived through our own crises/trauma/illness/addiction/etc, and we know how it actually feels.

This isn't just some cute hand-holding role. It's a crucial part of a larger movement to integrate and humanize-- frankly, to TRANSFORM-- healthcare. That's the agenda, straight up. And I even get to fucking SAY THAT out loud.

And how do we enact this subversive scheme? By using empathy to relate to people, while helping empower them to determine and work on their OWN damn recovery goals, without judging.

Trying to "fix" people leads to burnout. Coercion and punishment have diminishing returns-- you can't force anybody to get better by kicking them when they're already down. Stigma has done massive damage. So we slow down, give an actual shit, and walk WITH people while they learn to fish, instead of beating fish over their heads, get it?

How's that for revolutionary.

#praxis
#mentalhealth
#mentalillness
#trauma
#traumainformed
#peersupport
#peergroups
#recovery
#resilience
#supportgroups
#peersupportspecialist
#mentalhealth #resilience #trauma #mentalillness #recovery #peersupport #praxis #peergroups #supportgroups #peersupportspecialist #traumainformed

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