How to Create Your Family’s Emergency Plan
An emergency plan is one of the most important assets your family can have. I call it an asset because it could quite literally be the one thing that saves one or more of your family members from injury or even death.
Mr Squoodles and I love playing with and caring for our kids at home. But like other families, things happen, and life doesn’t flow as smoothly as we’d like. There are also times when there’s just one of us at home with the boys. If anything was to happen to one of us, we’d want our boys to know what to do. That got me thinking about creating an emergency plan for our family, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
What Should My Emergency Plan Contain?
Your emergency plan will be a custom-made document designed specifically to meet the needs of your family. It will most likely contain information about:
- Names, ages and contact details of family members and pets
- Contact details for an alternative meeting place
- Contact details of people who can collect kids from school
- Important phone numbers: 111, family, neighbours, police, fire, ambulance, doctor, school, council etc
- Location of the emergency survival kit
- Plan of the house, identifying water, gas and electric mains switches, entrances and exits, safe places to shelter
- Emergency radio stations
- Instructions on what to do in an earthquake, fire and tsunami
Once you’ve created your family’s emergency plan, it’s important that you update it regularly. It’s also a good idea to give a copy of it to family members who reside elsewhere too.
Once you’ve got your emergency plan, it’s time to teach your children what to do in case of an emergency.
Working Through Your Emergency Plan with Your Children
If you’re like us, both parents won’t be with your kids 24/7. If they’re at school or day-care, it’s the responsibility of the adults there to care for your children until they can be collected. But if you’re at home, and something happens, it’s vital that your kids know what to do too.
Teaching your children how to call 111 is something you should discuss when you feel your child is ready: there’s no set age as kids develop the cognitive skills for this at different times. The process of teaching them how to call emergency services remains the same though. It involves:
- Discussing what the 111 service does
- Learning how to dial 111 on the phone – where the phone is located, how to turn it on, what buttons to press, how to hold the receiver etc
- Explaining who will answer the phone first
- How to know whether to ask for ambulance, police or fire
- What information they should give the person on the other end – this will vary depending on your child’ age, but can include your address, their phone number, the number on the letterbox, their full name, the colour of the house and letterbox, the town or city they live in and the reason they need help
It’s a great idea to spend time practicing how to call 111 with your child. They can pretend to be person needing help, while you ask the required questions to help them know what to say. Then as they become confident, reverse the roles around. Toys phones are ideal but remember that the ones they play with may look and work completely different to your mobile or house phone. Finally, discuss the reasons why they would call 111, plus when it is not suitable to call. Explain the downside of calling 111 if it wasn’t an emergency, including how it takes resources away from those who need it.
Does your family have an emergency plan and are they able to use it if necessary? I’m proud to say the Squoodles family do and are ready to use it if necessary!
Click the below images to download your Emergency Plan.
