Managing Risk Through Stress Injury Mitigation - Online Classroom

6:30-8:30pm PST via Zoom Meeting
Meeting link will be sent to registered attendees the day of the session.

This presentation will encourage attendees to speak up throughout the presentation and be interactive with prompting discussion questions interspersed within lecture segments. Breakout rooms will be used to start the process of self-reflecting with peers about your Risk Self-Awareness and habits, and give you a chance to practice flexibility focused “Learnacy Skills”.

Stress Injuries are physical injuries where anyone can get hurt and anyone can get better. The shift has begun: from viewing stress injuries as a mental health issue carrying with it much stigma towards a more universal experience of stress accumulation that moves us towards burnout. So let’s dive in to what this is exactly, how it happens, and how it affects us in the outdoor industry and beyond.

We will dive into how stress affects the body and the brain, the neuroscience around stress hormones as it relates to sleep and the power of talking. Understanding what’s going on within your body is the first step towards recognizing the subtle changes stress can cause.

You can expect to walk away with language to talk about what you are experiencing, along with tools and strategies to mitigate stress injuries.

Finally, shifting where we view this topic from is the key to wider adoption and recognition: this is a critical component of a sound Risk Management strategy. Let’s take a look at what happens when Stress Injury Mitigation becomes an integral part of Risk Management. These are skills you can start incorporating into your practice immediately.

Resources

Please find here the LINK to resources from my session. You will find:

• Two short (amateur) videos on neuroscience that may help with creating your own training: “E2P-Stress&theBrain” and “E2P-JustStartTalking

In the folder: “Making Risk Management Training Tangible for Staff Using Cross-Industry Adaptations”.  It includes:

• “Stress Injury Mitigation Training Outline” – In depth resource for Stress Injury Mit.
• “RM Cheat Sheet for Trainers” – Condensed key RM concepts/framework
• “Making RM Training Tangible Using Cross Industry Adaptations - Key Concepts” – A summary of the key concepts of the Risk Management presentation.

[Note: These are from the original presentations from the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) 2022, which has a few sub-topics not covered in the session with The Mountaineers. Feel free to contact me with questions]

There is also a folder called “Stress Continuums for the Outdoor Industry” which has expanded versions of the Stress Continuums created by the Outdoor Professional Taskforce (former subgroup of Responder Alliance Network). 

These look in depth at what it looks like/sounds like/feels like in the various colours specific to various levels of an organization along with Tools. (For the Organization as a whole/for Program Admin Staff/ for Field Staff/ for Students)

For editable copies follow this LINK – please read the “Overview & Instructions” document first.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions: rumi.kodama@gmail.com

Presenter

Rumi Kodama is a paramedic in Vancouver, BC with roots in the outdoor/wilderness therapy industry in numerous roles for over 20 years from YMCA to BC Conservation Corps to NOLS, Outward Bound Canada and Alaska Crossings. Risk is inherent in everything we do and the power of bringing practices from across industry lines is something that just makes sense. Her passion extends to thinking about how we manage risk to reduce occurrences of stress injuries and teaching these topics with a tendency towards focusing on making things tangible and spreading practical ideas.

Lead image by Skye Stoury