Hawaii Violence Prevention

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STEP:

When going on vacation to Hawaii the only thing that graces the mind is the fun, the sun, and the adventure! What will you do? What will you see? Where will you go and what will you wear? But the truth is that there are lots of things that can happen especially when someone is away at a distant location. With floods, earthquakes, accidents, and injuries, it’s important to be prepared for any and all of these unlucky events. So what can you do to prepare?

Get Health Insurance: Health insurance is a must these days for but should be even more important to those who are traveling. It is definitely not the most romantic idea when thinking about weekend getaways but it will save lots of heartache and money in the long run. That way if a leg gets broken, a back goes out, or contacts get lost, vacationers can rest assured that they are covered and need not worry about expensive out of pocket costs that may cut their days in paradise short.

If future travelers have no health insurance the best bet is to get online and begin to look for an insurance quote on traveler’s insurance that includes health coverage. Many sites offer this service. After inputting answers to a list of questions the site will generate a price quote so that you can decide on the plan that is right for you. There doesn’t have to be long phone calls or uncomfortable personal interviews; instead, you can find what you need from the privacy of your own home.

So when Hawaii calls and the floral shirts are packed be sure to invest in health insurance. Everyone would love to have a vacation free of accidents and injuries, but in the off chance they do occur, do yourself a favor and be prepared. A few minutes online today could spare you a hurt wallet tomorrow.

It is an employer’s responsibility to maintain a business that is free of harassment.  If harassment is occurring in your business unchecked it lowers morale, productivity, and can create expensive legal issues for you.  Sexually harassment is illegal, but unfortunately, it still occurs every day in the workplace.

Sexual harassment is actually a broad term and comes in many forms.  It is imperative that you educate your employees on what actions constitutes sexual harassment.  A sexual advance or conduct that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment that makes any employee uncomfortable is considered sexual harassment.  It can be a supervisor, manager, or coworker that has sexually harassed and employee.  Jokes, pictures, touching and innuendo can constitute sexual harassment.

Have a very clear sexual harassment policy.  It should define sexual harassment.  Your policy should state you will not tolerate any sexual harassment in any form.  The policy should have a very clear procedure for filing complaints and that every complaint received will be investigated.  It should also indicate what disciplinary actions will be taken if the complaint is found to be valid.

Once a year train employees on what to do when they see sexual harassment, or what to do if they are a victim of sexual harassment.  Encourage employees to use whatever complaint system that you have in place.  Train your managers and supervisors separately.  Teach them what sexual harassment is and how to keep an eye out for signs.  Also show them how to handle complaints that are made.  As an employer you also have to show that you are actively checking for signs of sexual harassment.  Monitor your workplace by looking for posters, pictures or anything that could be considered sexual in nature.  Talk to your employees about their working environment.  Take any complaint of sexual harassment seriously and investigate immediately.  If it is valid, your response should be fast and disciplinary actions effective.

Workplace violence is defined as “violence or the threat of violence against workers”  involving physical assault, threatening behavior, or verbal abuse related to the workplace, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). These behaviors range from verbal aggressiveness or harassment to murder. There were 521 workplace killings in the United States in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 420 of them committed by gunfire.

While mass shootings receive a great deal of coverage in the media, such as the shootings at the manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico in July 2010 and the gunman who opened fire at the Bay City School Board meeting in December 2010, there are many more violent acts committed by employees. In addition to the harm they cause, violent acts can leave employers liable for damages if they knew an employee was a potential threat to co-workers.

What can an employer do to identify and prevent a potential problem? One way is to search a potential employee’s history of past violence by using a pre-employment background check. By screening applicants, an employer can expose any recorded history of violence or harassment. In addition when employers inform job applicants of their screening process, many prospective employees with background issues with remove themselves from the hiring process.

By using this method to reduce workplace violence, employers also show that they are diligent in finding out if an applicant poses a potential threat to the company or to the public. But employers do need to be careful about crossing the line and being too invasive into a prospective employee’s privacy. According to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), laws in several states limit the use of arrest and conviction records by prospective employers. These include restricting the use of conviction history in making an employment decision.

With media attention given to reports of suicide and cyber bullying, much of the United States views public schools as dangerous, if not deadly, places. However, this is a misperception based on high-profile cases reported in the media. Few serious violent crimes take place in school relative to home. In fact, very few juvenile homicides take place at school. In contrast, there is evidence of a growing problem with less serious crimes such as bullying and harassment that require a school’s attention.

Juvenile Violence is Decreasing

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) national arrest statistics, law enforcement made approximately 581,765 juvenile arrests for violent crimes in 2009, a decline of 15 percent from the year 2000 and a drop of 2.3 percent from 2008. Those under age 18 also are less violent than adults. Juveniles accounted for 14 percent of all arrests for violent crimes in 2009.
Among students aged 12-18, there were about 743,100 non-fatal violent crimes in schools, according Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) figures for the 2008-2009 school year. During that same period, there were 38 school-associated violent deaths in the United States including 15 homicides. This is less than half the reported number of school homicides in 1998. Because of highly publicized homicides in the 1990′s, local school systems across the country implemented tougher policies, and expanded their use of school resource officers and security officers.

Bullying on School Grounds

During the 2007-2008 school year, 32 percent of students reported being bullied on school grounds and four percent reported being cyber bullied (which can occur anywhere) versus just two percent of these same student reporting violent crimes, according to BJS. This same population in 1999 reported bulling at a rate of just 5.1 percent of students.
For schools to remain a relatively safe place for children, administrators need to know what kinds of crimes are most likely to happen and make decisions based in fact.

A recent study by US researchers has found that older adults who adopted a healthy diet were more likely to live longer than those who did not. In a study of 2,500 Americans between the ages of 70 and 79 over a ten year period will report these findings in the January 2011 issue of Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Healthy Diet Make for a Longer Life
According to the study’s findings, older adults who maintain a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and little beef had a higher-quality and longer life than their counterparts who had higher intakes of fat and sugar. There are not many studies that have focused on dietary patterns and longevity in the elderly. Since the leading causes of death are shifting to chronic diseases which can be affected by diet, more research is looking at diet. In addition to this change, the world population is also aging. The worldwide population of adults over 65 is expected to reach 973 million in 2030, more than double the same population in 2000.

Saturated Fats and Trans Fats Lead to Higher Mortality
The study divided the research participants into six groups based on what they ate most. After taking various demographics of the participants into account, research showed that participants categorized under the high-fat dairy foods group and the sweets and desserts group had mortality rates 40 percent and 37 percent, respectively, higher than the healthy foods group. Both of these food group with higher mortality rates are higher in saturated fats and trans fats than the healthy foods group.

The project was led by Dr. Amy Anderson and Dr. Nadine Sahyoun, both from the University of Maryland’s Department of Nutrition and Food Science. Grants from the National Institute of Health and National Institute of Aging helped support this research.

Teens are starting to date these days much sooner than they were 10 or even 20 years ago. There is also the introduction of mood-enhancing chemicals in their dating social circle that includes things like alcohol and drugs. When these things become a part of the equation, the teens often experience emotional and physical outbursts that can be harmful to those around them, especially their dates.

Because the dating scene has changed so dramatically, teens need to be aware of potentially harmful situations and understand how they can avoid being caught in compromising situations.

While dating, of course teens want to have fun and experience living a fun youth, but whenever there is potential violence involved, there are some things that they need to be aware of and caution against. They include:

- Alcohol Use
Teenagers should not ride with or be around their dates when they have consumed too much alcohol. Very often when people have consumed too much alcohol, they become violent and act out, usually with the person they’re with. Teens should avoid this by refusing to get in the car if there’s alcohol present or if they detect alcohol on the person’s breath.

- Walk Away
In the dating scene, there are many opportunities for the teenagers to want to appear tough. They may instigate arguments or try and start fights with their dates. In order to avoid harmful situations, the teen should just walk away and refuse to participate in any of the behavior. This action can squelch any chance of problems escalating out of control.

For the teenager, dating should and can be a fun time for them to enjoy as they grow and expand their social circles. Being safe in all situations is the best way for them to be able to do this without bringing harm to themselves and others around them.

School authorities have a very real problem when it comes to school bullies. They are sometimes hard to identify and many times even harder to control. Because the bullying situation in many schools is so rampant, authorities often decide to either ignore the problem or wait until it escalates to a point where they have to implement more aggressive situations.

Taking care of situations where there is a bullying problem often involves several steps where the authorities and the families of those involved work together to find an amenable solution. Some things that can help rectify the problem include:

- Talking with the children involved. This includes the bully(ies) and those who are being bullied. Try to find out the underlying cause of the problem and why such a problem exists. Many times, especially with younger children, simply talking about the issues can help it go away.

- Always involve the parents of the children. This should be done as a first step, proactive solution in order to offset the problem before it gets too far out of hand. This is especially important if parents aren’t aware of any existing situations.

- Implement actionable items that would cause the children to incur consequences for their behavior. This may discourage the bullying behavior while the kids learn that there are consequences for their actions.

- Involve the authorities when dealing with bullies to use as a discouraging method for their behavior. Usually this will alleviate any brewing problems, or at least keep the thought in the children’s minds.

In order for there to be a successful stand against bullying, it requires the efforts and attention of all who are directly involved in the situation. With everyone involved and interested in bringing a resolution to the existing problem, bullying can soon become a problem of their past.

Unfortunately, bullies come in all shapes, forms and ages, but the school-yard bully is perhaps the one that many children fear the most. It’s likely because it is in a school setting and the one thing that most kids want is to fit in and be accepted. Being bullied means that the child has to conform to what the bully wants them to do, and often this is not the best scenario for them to partake in.

Bullying is a very real and aggressive problem that many schools are finding difficult to control and manage. There are many situations that they don’t even know about and circumstances that occur on a daily basis that’s not brought to the school’s administration’s attention.

What does a bully do? What do they look like? Here are five characteristics and traits of a school bully that children should watch for and avoid:

1. Bullies are usually loud and aggressive. They like attention and do things, usually negative things, to get that attention, even if it means shoving and pushing other kids around.

2. Bullies are softies. They may look and act mean, but they’re usually the first ones to cry if they’re challenged.

3. They have very few “friends” They are usually flanked by other kids who are just as equally afraid of them and don’t want to get on their bad side.

4. Be firm but not confrontational. Bullies will respect you if you will be firm and take up for yourself when you need to. They want to instill fear, and if you don’t show any fear, they can’t scare you.

The school-yard bully will likely exist for many years to come. But if the young child knows what to expect and uses some of these tips to help them avoid bad situations, the bully certainly doesn’t have to be a part of their lives in any way.

Learning to defend yourself is something that we teach our children from the time they enter elementary school even until they get to college. We want them to understand how to protect themselves in any situation and also how to avoid getting into any fights or arguments.

As adults, we must also learn to defend ourselves, although it may not always be in the physical sense. Even so, there may be times when it becomes necessary to learn the mechanics of self-defense in case we’re ever confronted with any awkward situations.

Defending yourself is very important for several reasons:

- Never allow someone to physically harm you in any way. Your body is your property and no one is allowed to harm you in any way.

- Protecting yourself physically is important in order to discourage sustained injuries. Once you get hit, especially hit the wrong way, it hurt very badly and for a long time. Protecting and defending your body can help to avoid long-term injuries.

- Defending yourself sends a message to others that they cannot try to harm you. People who want to physically harm others will learn very quickly that they should not bother you.

Self-defense is often viewed as physical fighting, like street-fighting or in organized ways like Karate or Tae Kwon Do. Although these ways are very common ways to defend yourself, the concept of self-defense goes beyond the physical element and goes into ways on being proactive and limiting any potential situations where self-defense must be implemented.

When you defend yourself physically, you usually want to discourage others from harming you before any problems erupt. If you approach the situation from this perspective, you will find that there are very few incidents that you’

re involved in. You will also notice that there are very few people who may be usually confrontational but will not want to bother you or start any conflict.