Calling For Help Research Articles

An integrated machine learning approach for identifying emergency rescue messages on social media during natural disasters

During large-scale disasters, emergency call centers are often overwhelmed by the large volume of rescue requests and calls for help. Consequently, people are turning to social media platforms to seek assistance. Rescue information posted on these platforms is extremely valuable for first responders to make informed rescue decisions. Therefore, the automatic identification of these requests from the vast amount of data posted on social media during crises is critical yet challenging. This work presents our ongoing research on applying deep learning techniques to extract actionable rescue information from social media during crises. We proposed a novel deep learning model that integrates a fine-tuned BERT to extract low-level statistical features and rule-based Regex filters to extract problem-specific features for emergency tweet identification. The proposed model was evaluated on labeled tweets collected from three hurricane events (Harvey, Ian, and Ida). Experimental results showed that our model performed better than several machine learning and deep learning methods in terms of the Area Under the Precision-Recall Curve (AUC-PR) metric for all events. This study contributed to the crisis informatics literature by introducing a novel deep learning approach for automatically identifying actionable information in social media, which can be adapted for similar natural language processing (NLP) tasks.

Admission and goodbye letters from adolescents with anorexia nervosa in a day hospital

BackgroundCare providers working with adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) encounter difficulties inherent in the illness (denial, ambivalence) and those related to the fact that it is most often the parents who bring adolescents to care units. Our aim was to study attitudes towards care among adolescents with AN treated in a specialised day hospital using an analysis of letters written before and after treatment.MethodsAdolescents (12–20 years old) treated for AN in a specialised day hospital, providing multidisciplinary care while enabling a return to schooling inside the facility were included. We analysed 50 admission letters and 23 goodbye letters using general inductive analysis. A mirror analysis was conducted.ResultsIn the admission letters, symptoms, calls for help, and reports on the adolescents’ care trajectories were central themes. Among the categories noted in both the admission and the goodbye letters, some were similar, some mirrored others and a few differed.ConclusionsThis study highlights how ambivalence and motivations towards care, recovery and illness all interact. It also shows the evolution of the adolescents’ positions via their narratives on their experience of care, the constraints involved and its benefits for them. The results are discussed in a care perspective.

Actions Taken by Bystanders During Sudden Cardiac Arrest: Analysis of Emergency Medical Service Documentation in Poland.

Background/Objectives: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a severe medical condition involving the cessation of the heart's mechanical activity. Following the chain of survival, which includes early recognition and calling for help, early initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), early defibrillation, and post-resuscitation care, offers the greatest chances of saving a person who has experienced SCA. The aim of this study was to analyze cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and assess the actions taken by bystanders. Methods: The input for analysis consisted of 49,649 dispatch records from the emergency medical team (EMT) at the Voivodeship Emergency Medical Station in Bialystok in 2018-2019. Results: Among the patients where bystanders performed CPR, the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) occurred in 30.53% of cases, whereas in the cases where the bystander did not perform CPR, ROSC occurred in 2.35% of cases. When cardiac arrest rhythm was ventricular fibrillation (VF) or pulseless ventricular tachycardia (pVT), ROSC occurred in 58.62% of cases, while there was asystole or pulseless electrical activity (PEA) present, ROSC occurred in 26.56% of cases. In patients who experienced OHCA in a VF/pVT rhythm and who underwent intubation, ROSC occurred in 58.73% of cases, whereas in patients who underwent alternative procedures for airway management, ROSC occurred in 83.33% of cases. Conclusions: The most significant factor influencing the occurrence of ROSC in patients is CPR initiation by bystanders. The presence of a rhythm that requires defibrillation increases the likelihood of achieving ROSC in the patient. Alternative methods for airway management appear to be more beneficial in VF/pVT rhythms.

Examining the Racial and Gendered Impacts of Police-Initiated Contacts on Help-Seeking

AbstractIt is well known that marginalized communities of color, particularly young Black men, are more likely to experience police-initiated contact that other groups. Research suggests that these events contribute to legal cynicism, or the belief that the law and its agencies are ineffective, unwilling to help, and untrustworthy. In turn, cynical orientations limit one’s willingness to call the police to help. However, recent work on marginalized women suggests that despite holding cynical attitudes towards the police, their immediate needs for safety and services supersede these beliefs. The current study examines the racialized and gendered linkages between police-initiated contact and help-seeking outcomes (reporting crime, calling for an emergency, and seeking help from police for non-emergencies). Using data from the Police Public Contact Survey (from the Police Public Contact Survey–2020) results indicate that Black and Hispanic participants were less likely than White participants to seek help. However, Black and Hispanic women were more likely than their male counterparts for calls for help regarding a crime or disturbance. Across all outcomes, police-initiated contact was associated with higher rates of help-seeking. Perceived illegitimacy of street stops reduced the odds of reporting crimes to the police. However, perceived traffic stop illegitimacy was not related to help-seeking. Police initiated contacts and perceptions of legitimacy did not moderate the relationships between demographic variables and help-seeking outcomes. Implications for theories on legal socialization and the impact of police-initiated contacts on help-seeking are discussed.

Abstract Su406: Acceptability and Effectiveness of a Novel, Video-Based CPR and AED Education Program in Canadian Schools

Background: Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation are critical for favorable outcomes after sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Scientific evidence supports CPR and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training in school-age children. Few studies have used gamified, video-based training to teach students. This national project aimed to assess the acceptability and effectiveness of a brief, video-based educational program (CardiacCrash™), developed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation to teach students hands-only CPR and AED use within a classroom setting. Methods/Results: This study reports preliminary data from two Canadian provinces (Ontario, Alberta). The acceptability and effectiveness of training was measured using a pre/post survey evaluating students’ self-confidence in recognizing SCA, calling for help, and providing bystander CPR, including the use of an AED. CPR performance was measured by using Little Anne QCPR manikins that collected data on CPR effectiveness throughout the training session. Results are stratified by student cohort (elementary—grades 4-8, and secondary—grades 9-12). A total of 1273 students from 6 Ontario and 7 Alberta schools were trained between October 2023 to April 2024. The average age for elementary students (n=729; 47.3% male) was 11.2 ± 1.3 years, and 39.9% had previous CPR training. The average age for secondary students (n=544; 54.4% male) was 15.5 ± 1.1, and 42.6% had previous CPR training. Both groups thought the training was easy (86%), fun (81%), the correct duration (59%) and would recommend it to their friends (85%). All outcome variables improved post-training for both elementary and secondary students, including the self-confidence to recognize and assist in cases of SCA (p=0.008 for both cohorts), (Figure 1). Secondary students were significantly better at providing effective compressions vs. elementary for most CPR measures (Table 2). Conclusion: Preliminary data suggest that CardiacCrash™, a video-based educational program, is acceptable to school-age students and effective at teaching them to perform CPR and use an AED. While both elementary and secondary students achieved acceptable CPR performance, secondary students performed higher quality CPR.

Narrating Solidarity With Ukraine: European Parliament Debates on Energy Policy

The article aims to improve our understanding of the politics of energy policy in the EU in the context of the war in Ukraine. It shows how the energy policy debate is contextualised by the suffering of Ukraine and the country’s efforts to resist Russian aggression and full-scale war. An abductive qualitative content analysis of 10 European Parliament debates on economic sanctions against Russia between March 2014 and October 2022 is used to reconstruct four narratives of the EU’s transnational solidarity with Ukraine. The following solidarity narratives are compared in terms of underlying notions of solidarity, proposed policy solutions, and their temporal aspects: “solidarity based on the common enemy,” “solidarity as mutual sacrifice,” “solidarity based on shared independence,” and “solidarity based on our resilience.” We find that despite the prominence of the solidarity frame in all four narratives, there were latent relevant differences in the urgency of the proposed solutions. Moreover, the references to suffering in these narratives tend to contrast “their” and “our” suffering, rather than calling for help for Ukraine.

Surviving academia: Narratives on identity work and intersectionality

AbstractThis paper examines the lived experiences of four early career researchers (ECRs), from various intersecting backgrounds, who pursued their degrees at a prestigious UK university. Bonded through solidarity and care, the authors came together in an online writing group (OWG), which serves as a means of liberation from structural, colonial, and patriarchal oppression. Built upon autoethnographic vignettes, this paper reveals fragile narratives to capture subjective experiences of neglect through the lens of intersectionality and Goffmanian “passing” and “revealing”. Motivated to explore the coping mechanisms of marginalized ECRs, this paper's co‐constructed data collection and co‐generative analysis unpack how a meso‐organization (here, the OWG) allows foreign identities to transcend the constraints of the expected academic professional identity; thus freeing authors from stigma. This paper calls for help and advocates for the urgency of support groups for ECRs as they face issues around finances, political conflicts, and family from pre‐ to post‐COVID‐19 pandemic. Additionally, the research challenges internalized norms of academic productivity and responsibilization and calls for a re‐examination of systemic inequalities. By advocating for collaborative autoethnography and embodied personal storytelling, this study contributes to a richer, more inclusive exploration of intersectionality in academia and emphasizes the need for structural reforms to create more equitable academic environments.

Неформальное гражданское участие населения в развитии малых и средних городов Европейского Севера России (на примере некоммерческих организаций и городских интернет-сообществ)

This article explores the informal public participation in the development of small and medium-sized cities in the European North of Russia. It focuses on two main aspects: the impact of nonprofit organizations (NGOs) and the activity of residents on social networks, particularly in discussions and solutions to local socio-economic issues. The study reveals that NGO activities create significant opportunities for addressing local concerns raised by residents to municipal authorities. An analysis of the official pages of local governments on the VKontakte social network shows that, compared to larger cities, residents of these smaller cities are more engaged in dialogue with local authorities, demonstrate higher loyalty to published content, and actively share information of interest. The research also finds that while residents of small and medium-sized cities actively discuss urban problems in informal online communities and participate in various kinds of socially beneficial events, their participation is generally prompted by external organizers. The level of self-organization to address broader citywide problems remains relatively low. However, when dealing with personal household matters, citizens actively communicate through urban online communities. The study also highlights a high level of trust among residents, as evidenced by their strong response to calls for help in the comments. The scientific novelty of this research lies in its first-time analysis of public participation and the assessment of resident involvement in the management and development processes of small and medium-sized cities, through mechanisms such as NGOs and urban Internet communities.

Bystanders’ willingness to assist using automated external defibrillators during cardiac arrest

Bystanders’ willingness to assist using automated external defibrillators during cardiac arrest

Leveraging social media data for pandemic detection and prediction

Governments and healthcare institutions are increasingly recognizing the value of leveraging social media data to address disease outbreaks. This is due to the rapid dissemination and rich content of social media data, which includes real-time reactions and calls for help from people. However, current research on which social media data can be utilized for information support, as well as the underlying reasons why social media data can be utilized for information support, remains limited. This study aims to make up for the aforementioned limitation by investigating which social media information is more likely to reflect the severity of an outbreak through empirical and prediction models, while also elucidating why social media data has the ability to reflect pandemic through content analysis. The COVID-19 outbreak was utilized as a case example in this study because it has the advantage of enhancing the universality of results and promoting the validation of the model with multiple waves of data. The empirical model results indicate that social media activity from public users is more likely to reflect the ground truth during pandemic. In particular, it was found that negative sentiment expressed in blog posts by public users during pandemic aligns more closely with the severity of disease outbreak. Then, a prediction model was proposed to further validate these findings of the empirical model. Finally, a content analysis was conducted based on the conclusions drawn from empirical model and prediction model. The content analysis revealed that the predictive capability of social media data for pandemic originates from individual self-reporting of illness. This study provides contributions and insights into which types of information can be used for pandemic monitoring and forecasting. The findings of our research have significant implications for governments and healthcare institutions in leveraging social media data for pandemic monitoring and forecasting.

The Sounds of Silence: Making Sense of the Absence of Domestic Violence Victims Help Seeking During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Increased concern was raised globally at the outbreak of COVID-19 that victims of domestic violence would be even more at risk when isolated with a violent partner and out of reach of support due to restrictions. Swedish staff in violence against women services prepared for increased calls for help. Instead, a worrying silence arose in a time and place of high uncertainty. This article analyzes the narratology of risk, when staff members in violence against women services, reflect upon their accounts, responses, and experiences, during the pandemic. The analysis is based on three themes, accounting for expected increased influx, making sense of silence and accounting for mobilization. The findings are discussed by applying the relational theory of risk.

An integrated framework for flood disaster information extraction and analysis leveraging social media data: A case study of the Shouguang flood in China

An integrated framework for flood disaster information extraction and analysis leveraging social media data: A case study of the Shouguang flood in China

Clinical Triggers and Vital Signs Influencing Crisis Acknowledgment and Calls for Help by Anesthesiologists: A Simulation-Based Observational Study

(J Clin Anesth. 2023;90:111235 |https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinane.2023.111235) Swiftly mobilizing resources in perioperative emergencies is crucial for patient survival, with anesthesiologists typically bearing this responsibility. Recognizing the urgency, the call for help is emphasized through formalized “stat” calls. However, the timing of seeking assistance remains subjective, posing a challenge. While empirical evidence highlights blood pressure thresholds indicative of harm, ambiguity surrounds terms like “early” in crisis management. An assumption that anesthesiologists must possess all answers hinders timely collaboration, impacting patient care. Factors affecting crisis acknowledgment, especially in simulated settings, were explored among MOCA course participants. Acknowledgment, a pivotal step in emergency response, was scrutinized alongside potential differences between active participants and observers. This investigation seeks to expose vulnerabilities in ACRM implementation, guiding future studies on crisis management in perioperative settings.

A robot-based surveillance system for recognising distress hand signal

Abstract Unfortunately, there are still cases of domestic violence or situations where it is necessary to call for help without arousing the suspicion of the aggressor. In these situations, the help signal devised by the Canadian Women’s Foundation has proven to be effective in reporting a risky situation. By displaying a sequence of hand signals, it is possible to report that help is needed. This work presents a vision-based system that detects this sequence and implements it in a social robot, so that it can automatically identify unwanted situations and alert the authorities. The gesture recognition pipeline presented in this work is integrated into a cognitive architecture used to generate behaviours in robots. In this way, the robot interacts with humans and is able to detect if a person is calling for help. In that case, the robot will act accordingly without alerting the aggressor. The proposed vision system uses the MediaPipe library to detect people in an image and locate the hands, from which it extracts a set of hand landmarks that identify which gesture is being made. By analysing the sequence of detected gestures, it can identify whether a person is performing the distress hand signal with an accuracy of 96.43%.

Reducing the time to activation of the emergency call system in operating theatres: effect of installing vertical red line indicators

Reducing the time to activation of the emergency call system in operating theatres: effect of installing vertical red line indicators

Emergency Nurses’ Reasons for Not Recommending Their Hospital to Clinicians as a Good Place to Work

Half of emergency nurses report high burnout and intend to leave their job in the next year. Whether emergency nurses would recommend their workplace to other clinicians may be an important indicator of a hospital's ability to recruit clinicians. To examine why emergency nurses do not recommend their hospital to other clinicians as a good place to work. This qualitative study used directed content analysis of open-text responses (n = 142) from the RN4CAST-NY/IL survey of registered nurses licensed in New York and Illinois between April 13 and June 22, 2021. Inductive and deductive analytic approaches guided study theme development informed by the Social Ecological Model. The collected data were analyzed from April to June 2023. Nurses who answered "probably not" or "definitely not" to the survey question, "Would you recommend your place of employment as a good place to work?" were prompted to provide a rationale in an open-text response. In this qualitative study of 142 emergency nurses (mean [SD] age, 43.5 [12.5] years; 113 [79.6%] female; mean [SD] experience, 14.0 [12.2] years), 94 (66.2%) were licensed to work in New York and the other 48 (33.8%) in Illinois. Five themes and associated subthemes emerged from the data. Themes conveyed understaffing of nurses and ancillary support (theme 1: unlimited patients with limited support); inadequate responsiveness from unit management to work environment safety concerns (theme 2: unanswered calls for help); perceptions that nurses' licenses were in jeopardy given unsafe working conditions and compromised care quality (theme 3: license always on the line); workplace violence on a patient-to-nurse, clinician-to-nurse, and systems level (theme 4: multidimensional workplace violence); and nurse reports of being undervalued by hospital management and unfulfilled at work in delivering suboptimal care to patients in unsafe working conditions (theme 5: undervalued and unfulfilled). This study found that emergency department nurses did not recommend their workplace to other clinicians as a good place to work because of poor nurse and ancillary staffing, nonresponsive hospital leadership, unsafe working conditions, workplace violence, and a lack of feeling valued. These findings inform aspects of the work environment that employers can address to improve nurse recruitment and retention.

Police, Victim and Co-victim Interaction: Insights from Australia

Interacting with victims and co-victims of crime and other calls for help are a daily routine for police forces, and there have been many attempts to improve this vital function of policing in modern democratic societies. However, some groups in Australia remain unconvinced by police actions when they report incidents and are suspicious of the response they receive. This article provides insights concerning the way in which the police deal with victims and co-victims in Australia, utilizing a particular focus on high-profile sections of the community. These examples highlight some of the issues; the article concludes by suggesting that policing in Australia needs to be refocused to ensure officers understand the important role victims and co-victims play in reducing and detecting criminality, whilst also supporting the legitimization of the police role.

Definition, Management, and Training in Impacted Fetal Head at Cesarean Birth: A National Survey of Maternity Professionals

ABSTRACT Impacted fetal head (IFH) is a complication that occurs in 10% of cesarean deliveries (CDs). Disimpacting the fetal head can have significant maternal risks, including trauma to the uterus, vagina, cervix, and bladder, postpartum hemorrhage, as well as neonatal risks, including skull fracture, intracranial hemorrhage, head and face trauma, low oxygen levels, admission to the neonatal intensive care unit, and death. Perinatal head injury due to IFH has resulted in increased litigation, with IFH identified as a contributing factor in nearly 10% of the most expensive maternity claims in the United Kingdom in 2018. International consensus on the most effective and safe management of IFH is lacking. Moreover, recent surveys of maternity professionals in the United Kingdom have reported a scarcity of training, lack of confidence, and underused techniques for IFH. Understanding how maternity professionals view the management of IFH during CD is helpful to improve care, training, and research. The aim of this study was to assess the views, understanding and practices to manage IFH during CD. This was a survey of health care professionals who provide maternity care or work in policy, research, or other areas of maternity care, using a secure online collaborative platform called Thiscovery. Participants included Thiscovery subscribers and members of clinical practice societies, such as the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Royal College of Anesthetists. The survey analyzed responses for open-ended questions, with free-text entries, and closed-ended questions. A total of 419 participants were included in the analysis, including 144 midwives, 216 obstetricians, and 59 other maternity professionals. A high level of agreement was found among 79% of obstetricians who preferred a definition of IFH at CD that included “additional maneuvers and/or tocolysis to disimpact and deliver the fetal head.” About a third of free-text responses from 17 respondents noted a need to incorporate the difficulty or inability to get a hand below the fetal head for delivery. Approximately 95% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that management of IFH at CD requires a multiprofessional approach. When asked about communicating an IFH emergency, 55% preferred using the declaration, “This is an impacted fetal head.” Free-text responses from 57 participants emphasized the importance of clear communication and awareness of the emergency across all team members before and during the management of IFH as well as with the woman and birth partner. More than 70% found that a change of operator, manual cephalic extraction, tocolysis, operating changing hand, reserve breech extraction, Fetal Pillow, head-down tilt, and vaginal disimpaction were safe and effective techniques and adjunctive measures for managing IFH at CD. However, free-text responses from 56 participants found mixed views on the use of tocolysis, noting the risk of complications such as postpartum hemorrhage. The use of Fetal Pillow was positively accepted by 71 participants. Comparing obstetricians with midwives, approximately three quarters of obstetricians considered vaginal disimpaction before CD acceptable (72% preincision and 76% postincision). Fewer midwives favored this technique (25% preincision and 52% postincision), with 88% reporting that knowing the position of the fetal head would be helpful to know before undertaking vaginal disimpaction. Training in vaginal disimpaction was considered essential by 85% of midwives and obstetricians. Yet only 81% of midwives and 57% of obstetricians had received such training. The preferred method of training was hands-on training in simulation (91%), followed by animated video illustrating disimpaction techniques (73%) and small-group teaching (55%). Free text responses form 159 participants demonstrated a need and appetite for more training. The most frequent suggestions to improve care for IFH at CD included holding briefings and debriefings before and after the emergency and having robust plans for escalation and calling for help. This study identified high agreement among United Kingdom maternity professionals to define IFH at CD. The study authors suggested a standard definition as “a cesarean birth where the obstetrician is unable to deliver the fetal head with their usual delivering hand, and additional maneuvers and/or tocolysis are required to disimpact and deliver the fetal head.” In addition, using unambiguous language in the emergency, such as declaring “This is an impacted fetal head,” facilitates teamwork and collaboration and improves care.

Could commodities themselves speak? An introduction to the agnotology of the spectacle

This article introduces the ‘agnotology of spectacle'. While agnotology is a relatively recent term used to describe the production and use of ignorance, we argue that Debord's Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (1992) is an early attempt to outline a global field of disinformation and secrecy. For Debord, such secrecy is required to maintain the political and moral authority of what he defined as ‘spectacle', namely the images used by states and corporations to mediate relations of power with consumers and citizens. We consider how the spectacle creates fields of disinformation and secrecy to maintain its political and moral authority by examining notes in commodities that purport to be calls for help from coerced labourers in China. These notes allow us to assess the uncanny experience of consuming goods manufactured across global supply chains which may well comprise of serious labour exploitation. However, these sources also demand a more expansive agnotology than that provided by Debord: one that engages with labour processes, contracts and race. We therefore develop Debord's ideas by examining the work of Mills and Benaji. Finally, drawing on Brecht's concept of the 'estrangement effect', we discuss how exploited workers can co-opt the aesthetics of the uncanny to articulate their subject position within a global agnotological field.

“Calling for help: I need you to listen” - A qualitative study of callers’ experience of calls to the emergency medical communication centre

BackgroundThe Emergency Medical Communications Center (EMCC) is essential in emergencies and often represents the public’s first encounter with the healthcare system. Previous research has mainly focused on the dispatcher’s perspective. Therefore, there is a lack of insight into the callers’ perspectives, the attainment of which may contribute significantly to improving the quality of this vital public service. Most calls are now made from mobile phones, opening up novel approaches for obtaining caller feedback using tools such as short-message services (SMS). Thus, this study aims to obtain a better understanding of callers’ actual experiences and how they perceived their interaction with the EMCC.MethodsA combination of quantitative and qualitative study methods was used. An SMS survey was sent to the mobile phone numbers of everyone who had contacted 113 during the last months. This was followed by 31 semi-structured interviews with people either satisfied or dissatisfied. Thematic analysis was used to investigate the interviews.ResultsWe received 1680 (35%) responses to the SMS survey, sent to 4807 unique numbers. Most respondents (88%) were satisfied, evaluating their experience as 5 or 6 on a six-point scale, whereas 5% answered with 1 or 2. The interviews revealed that callers were in distress before calling 113. By actively listening and taking the caller seriously, and affirming that it was the right choice to call the emergency number, the EMCC make callers experience a feeling of help and satisfaction, regardless of whether an ambulance was dispatched to their location.If callers did not feel taken seriously or listened to, they were less satisfied. A negative experience may lead to a higher distress threshold and an adjusted strategy before the caller makes contact 113 next time. Callers with positive experiences expressed more trust in the healthcare systems.ConclusionsFor the callers, the most important was being taken seriously and listened to. Additionally, they welcomed that dispatchers express empathy and affirm that callers made the right choice to call EMCC, as this positively affects communication with callers. The 113 calls aimed to cooperate in finding a solution to the caller’s problem.