A great idea for Family Home Evening is to take a few minutes and go over important emergency contact information. Depending on the situation, emergency calls are handled in different ways. It is good to go over these situations and calling procedures with your family. Try role playing different situations and correct procedures for the following:
1. Non-life Threatening Emergencies- (A neighbor or family contact) This is a good number to have in your cell phone, home phone or posted near a home phone. It can be used to get help when family members are home alone, or away from home and need help when parents or spouses are not available.
2. Life Threatening Emergencies- (911) If someone is in a life-threatening situation or is unconscious call 911 immediately. When you call make sure to give them the following information:
- Your name
- Phone # you are calling from
- Why you are calling- what has happened
- Your exact location (include intersections, landmarks, etc.)
- How many people have been injured and their conditions
- What first aid help is being given
- Do not hang up until the dispatcher tells you to
- Use the abreviation -ICE as the contact # in your phone
- Choose a family member or close friend who lives out of town preferably out of state.
- In the event of a natural disaster such as an earthquake all members of the family need to call this number to check in an let the ICE person know they are OK. This is helpful when members of the family are at work school, etc. and may not be able to contact each other because of local breaks in communication.
- Make sure to contact the family member or friend to make sure they are aware that they are your ICE contact.
- In the event local communications are out make sure to write down and or memorize the ICE # before your phone battery goes dead.
