Posted by Dr Michelle Wright
Staying safe at summer festivals
Staying safe at summer festivals has been helped considerably by greater awareness and useful apps. Now that the summer festival season has started here in Switzerland it’s important to know what help is available.
I’ve been to the Montreux Jazz festival twice in the last few days. The last time I was there, I noticed a sign behind the bar saying, “Are you being bothered? Ask for Angela.”
“Ask for Angela”
The idea behind this scheme is that if someone is being harassed, or finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation, they can ask the bar staff to ‘Call Angela’.
This code name then triggers an intervention. A pair of mediators come to the aid of the victim, take them to a safe place, and then they decide together on the next steps.
Similar campaigns are available at other festivals in Suisse Romande like Caribana and Paleo. And in Canton Fribourg, you can ask for Aretha in the event of a problem.
Posters are evident around the festivals highlighting the service, not just behind the bar but in toilets and other strategic places. And I just thought that it was worth a shout out to raise awareness.
Be my angel app
The other campaign that I’ve noticed, again relevant to the festival season, is the ‘be my angel’ app.
It can be used as a web App or is available on Google Play and the apple App store and it allows you to estimate your blood alcohol levels.
It’s available in English. You enter your gender and your weight, and you can add the alcoholic drinks that you’ve consumed, with the quantities and times, over the course of a day or evening out.
The app will then calculate the time when you won’t have any alcohol left in your body.
Of course, the caveat is that this is an estimation only. Legally, a blood sample is needed to give true blood alcohol levels and the general advice remains that if you’re drinking, you shouldn’t drive. But it’s still a good estimation and a helpful tool.
It’s also important to remember that fatigue, stress, drugs, and medication can also impair your ability to drive.
Check out bemyangel.ch to learn more.
That’s it for this episode. Catch the podcast and others in the series at worldradio.ch/healthmatters. And remember that a basic knowledge of first aid can save lives. Check out our upcoming courses here: https://healthfirst.ch/for-public/first-aid-training/
