During Night Owl shifts, a Night Owl will come across many such situations where their direct intervention is necessary for harm reduction. In this section we will describe some of these situations and the strategies for reducing harm in those moments!
- Understanding ‘Bystander Intervention’
When an individual (for our purposes, you during your Night Owl shift!) observes/witnesses person(s) in a situation of help (for our purposes, someone vomiting, passed out, sleeping in a public area, showing signs of excess intoxication, instances of harassment, bullying, sexual misconduct and other such examples) such an individual is called a ‘bystander’. As a bystander, we have the opportunity to intervene and potentially prevent further harm from occurring. This is called bystander intervention, and this can be a powerful way to start changing the norms we have here on campus around responding to harm of all kinds.
- Conditions for harm are more likely sustained by the ability of the one perpetuating harm to rely on things such as
- Anonymity
- Isolation
- Intoxication, or use of substances.
- Confusion
- Politeness
- Clout/Social Contract. (i.e. power & privilege in the social scene)
An ‘upstander’ is someone who intervenes and takes a stand by interrupting and challenging such dynamics, and in turn, changing the conditions that allow violence to go uninterrupted.
Note: Before intervening, it’s important to assess your own personal safety. It’s important to be aware of the space and identity that you occupy, and the identities of the people around you, and how that may influence how you view other people and how you intervene as a bystander. Practice reflecting on barriers to intervention that may come up for you and strategies to overcome the ones we can.
- What needs to be in place to feel motivated to intervene?
- You have to be able to understand and recognize that what you are seeing is not okay. Many passive bystanders say they chose not to do anything because they didn’t realize what they were witnessing was violence.
- You have to feel compelled to step in. There’s something called the bystander effect which has proven that the more people present when someone may be in need of help, the less likely they are to offer assistance. However, the good news is that if someone witnesses another person helping, they are more likely to be motivated to do the same. We can be that person to model intervening to others.
- You have to know what to do. Sometimes people recognize that there is violence going on, and want to do something about it, but they are paralyzed because they don’t know what the right action is.
So what can we do? There are endless possibilities, but a handy way of thinking about a few are to use the 5 D’s of Bystander Intervention: Direct, Delegate, Distract, Document, Delay. The table below gives a few lines for intervening while relying on the 5Ds.
Direct: interact directly with the situation and ask for other behavior (“That person looks too drunk to consent. You need to stop kissing them now”).
Delegate: identify others who can assist you in safely intervening (Find a friend of one of the parties, call for help).
Distract: speak with the target about something neutral to get them out of the situation (“Hey, you’re in the same chemistry class as me, right?”
Document: take note of the incident and report it through the shift report and/or to your Night Owl Captains, so that we can come up with better harm reduction strategies next time! Remember that you don’t need to take note of the name of the person, just their condition is fine!
Delay: check in with the person afterwards (“Hey, I saw what happened. Is there someone I can contact, or can I get you anything?”).
- Night Owls Bystander Intervention Strategies
Night Owls are perceived as people who strengthen the community, stick together, are sober, have resources and training to handle different situations, aren’t afraid to confront/intervene and can’t be intimidated.
As a Night Owl, while trying to help someone, you need to act as friendly as possible. A key for this is building trust. Because Night Owls act based on consent, building this trust is really important so that the people can listen to you and be open to your help.
- Here are some guidelines for establishing trust and interacting with people as trustworthy upstanders
- Introduce yourself
- Be open, friendly, honest and empathetic. Some things you can say are:
- “I’m so sorry you had this experience”
- “Thank you for trusting me”
- “Would you like me to help you find resources?”
- “What can I do to help you feel safer?”
- Remind them that the Night Owls are non-punitive and here to help everyone
- Listen for their needs and try understanding their situation. Is the affected person:
- Upset or angry? Emotional?
- Alone?
- Sleeping/Passed out?
- Hallucinating?
- Having trouble walking?
- Vomiting?
- Be aware of nonverbal cues of yours and others’
- Respect distance, consider power differential & identities between you, the individuals, and their surrounding peers
- Observe and mirror the person’s signals through your:
- Body positioning
- Eye contact
- Tone of voice
- Language
- Have an open body language by:
- Sitting: lean forward, arms and legs uncrossed, open hands
- Active listening: eye contact, nodding, encouraging feedback
- Do a wide angle/360 degree survey to identify any other potential causes for harm
- In case they don’t want to interact, leave them an escape route so that they don’t feel forced to interact
- Leave YOURSELF an escape route in case any emergency situations where you may be harmed arise (your safety is really important too!)
There may be emergencies that arise.
- Some of them could be
- Person is aggressive
- Person is having a mental health crisis
- Person is overly intoxicated (overdosed)
- Person is unconscious
In these situations, Call the CSOs and monitor the situation until they arrive.
- Referring to CSOs
There can be many situations where emergencies may arise. In such situations, call the CSOs. Their numbers are given on the “Resources on campus for” section! Remember, calling the CSOs is not a bad thing! They are harm reduction resources on campus with more expertise to help the individuals than we do, and they have to comply with the Medical Amnesty Policy. To understand what Medical Amnesty is, refer to the Medical Amnesty definition under Alcohol and Drug policies.
- Here are some situations where CSO’s should be called
- Medical emergencies, note the person may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs:
- Unconscious: cannot be roused even with loud shouting, vigorous shaking or pain stimulus
- Breathing irregularly: breathing abnormally slow or irregular
- Pulse: pulse is weak, very rapid, or very slow
- Seizures: seizures or eyes rolling back in the head
- Vomiting while passed out: not walking and/or coherent up after/while vomiting
- Physical incapacitation: urinating or defecating on themself
- Unable to stay awake for more than 2-3 minutes
- Unable to sit upright unassisted or control gross motor movements
- Unable to state where they are or recall the current day or time of day
- Obvious signs of physical injury
- Mental health crisis
- Physical violence occurring in front of you (ex. fist fights, threat of weapons, etc.)
- Sexual harassment and sexual misconduct (situation dependent, and check-ins with referral to resources may be the safest and most appropriate option; ex. Call to Safety).
- Vomit, broken glass or any dangerous substance/material on the floor (in these cases, the CSOs will redirect this clean up to the custodians (maintenance staff)
- Someone suspicious-looking walking about the campus
- Naloxone: If administering Naloxone, then call CSOs as soon as you are done administering it (see next section on how to administer Naloxone)
- Safety escorting: if someone looks like they need to be escorted back, and they ask you to escort them, offer CSOs first (as they are legal escorts of the campus under the Oregon law), but if they prefer you, then calling the CSOs can be avoided, and you can escort them
- Medical emergencies, note the person may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs:
Now that you know what to call the CSOs for, it is important to know what information needs to be relayed to the CSOs.
- Helpful information to share
- Where did it happen?
- Where are you now?
- Nature of the situation?
- Is it an emergency?
- What kind of help is needed? (medical assistance? fire? harm? Or is it a lower level issue like broken glass?)
There is also information Community Safety would expect to receive, but you are not required to provide in your role as a Night Owl–which does not enforce policies and maintains privacy to the extent appropriate.
- Personal information of the individuals might include
- Name
- Class
- Reed ID
- Dorm
As a Night Owl and upstander, you are required to stay by the person’s side until the CSOs arrive. Remember that by calling a CSO to help, Medical Amnesty will come into action, so the individual will not be charged with an AOD (to understand the AOD and medical amnesty policies, look under the Alcohol and Drug Policy section of the handbook).
- Resource Sharing
It is always good to equip yourselves with resources while on a Night Owl shift or lounge. Resources that can be offered to people to increase awareness and offer assistance are listed here.