Club staff training

Rik Hodgson & Jane McColl

Crew 2000, 32 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1BP, UK.

Phone no: +44- (0)131 220 3404 E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Crew 2000

Crew 2000 gives out credible information in clubs to young people who are using drugs or who are not using drugs but want the information for their friends. Crew 2000 also work at events in conjunction with people like the medics who provide crisis interventions to clubbers. As well as distributing information, Crew 2000 runs a drugs information shop in the middle of Edinburgh where anybody can come in from the street and pick up information about drugs or safe sex. It also offers training to any organisation interested in recreational drug use or current trends in drugs awareness, and has devised a training package for club staff - both bar staff and door supervisors.

Good practice at dance events

Nightclubs are risky environments and that is part of their thrill for the majority of people who go there and get high. We do not want to take the fun out of nightclubs, we just want to make sure people can have a good time. Tragically, people have died in the nightclub environment. Perhaps if they had introduced simple environmental factors these deaths would have been unnecessary. The Scottish Drugs Forum in collaboration with Crew 2000 and with about seven other Scottish agencies wrote a book called ‘Guidelines for good practice at dance events’ in 1995, commissioned by the Scottish Office. It contains sensible recommendations which may seem obvious. It recommends the prevention of over-crowding, air conditioning, ventilation, availability of drinking water, chill out rooms, staff training, medical and first aid provision and drugs and safer sex information.

There is nothing particularly radical in the suggestions but in the current climate in Scotland there is a scandalous denial of drug taking, which maintains an ideological stranglehold on local politics. This means that these simple recommendations are yet to be enforced anywhere in Scotland. Luckily, the local council in Edinburgh have just adopted these guidelines but that is not to say they are enforced, because they are not at the moment. Only the more enlightened nightclubs are actually introducing any of these recommendations.

Club training package

Crew 2000 runs club staff training. The first session is about attitudes. This session gives an insight into the club staff’s knowledge and experiences with drugs. After a mostly interesting discussion, the participants begin to look at the harms that the drugs can do to the individual and also to society. This includes legal drugs, as there seems to be a tendency for these to be ignored and not recognised as being drugs. This session enables the trainers to give club staff accurate information on drugs: the risks and effects, and why they are used, that is the desired effect the user is seeking. It also provides an opportunity to dispel any fears the staff may have, enabling club staff to gain understanding and add to their knowledge.

This second part of the session gives club staff a chance to research a certain type of drug in a kind of workshop session where staff are put into groups. Each is given some of our own leaflets and our own postcards and others from Lifeline. The drugs researched at this time are the most popular stimulants used by clubbers: ecstasy, speed, cocaine and LSD. The groups are asked to find out what the street names are, what the legal status for possession and supply is and what the physical and mental effects are, as well as what the risks are and how to avoid them, reduce harm. This information can be passed on to clubbers. A slide show ends this first session on drugs awareness. Crew 2000 has worked in conjunction with the local constabulary to develop a comprehensive library of slides of drugs and drugs paraphernalia. All the major uppers (stimulants), downers (depressants) and hallucinogens are shown. The session helps to reinforce what participants have learnt in the morning. The aim is to make the whole ‘safer dancing’ training package as interactive as possible, so staff are asked to try and guess the drug or guess the associated paraphernalia.

The second session is about crisis intervention. This session offers club staff useful information on how to deal with someone who is suffering from drug-induced anxiety, paranoia, depression, and also overheating and dehydration. This again informs them about the signs to look out for, and how to intervene to help and support clubbers to enable them to enjoy the rest of their night, offering the clubber reassurance and the club a good reputation for good practice. Most of the guidelines are common sense but it is useful to point them out. Each participant is given hand-outs and shown the general signs of anxiety and basically how to intervene. In groups again, the staff are given a set of scenarios with questions asking them what they would do in certain types of situations, what night be the complications of throwing that person out or letting them stay in the club. An example of such a scenario is:

A member of staff goes into the toilets and notices a young male slouched on the floor with his eyes rolling about his head. He appears to be with friends but when asked no-one present is with him. When you try to speak with him he starts to talk nonsense.

The staff are asked what they would do in this situation and what the implications throwing him out or letting him stay are. There is feedback from all of the groups which provides the trainees with some insight into what they are learning and what their understanding is of crisis intervention.

The third part of the training is about first aid. The first thing taught is: look after yourself first. There are three aspects to this first aid training. People are taught to look out for signs in shock and epilepsy, and to use the recovery position, which all the members of staff practise on their friends. The recovery position is a lifesaver; it is one of the most important elements of first aid. Participants are also shown how to recognise shock: rapid pulse; grey or blue skin; sweaty, cold, clammy hands. Then they are taught what to do: lay the casualty down; raise and support his or her legs as high as possible; treat any obvious cause of shock, ie bleeding; loosen tight clothing; call for an ambulance; and stay with the patient until the ambulance arrives. They are also taught to recognise epilepsy: breathing may cease, convoluted movements, muscles eventually relax and the casualty will either regain consciousness or will fall asleep. The kind of advice Crew 2000 give is: do not try to catch someone if someone is going to fall because the chances are you will fall down with them and do yourself some damage as well. One of the things to do is to try and stick your foot under someone’s head if they are falling down - but do not do this if you are wearing steel toe cap boots.

The final aspect of the training package basically looks at the good practice guidance book (see above). The recommendations it contains are so simple that it is absurd that clubs still now ignore them. Hopefully more and more security companies and venue staff will approach Crew 2000 or similar organisations offering this kind of training package. Thankfully most of the companies Crew 2000 have trained have at least one member of staff who is a first aider, which is positive. Crew 2000 would like to see quality stewarding, quality security, quality drugs and safer sex information available at these venues. They have enjoyed a brilliant rapport with all the security companies who have trained with them. Lots of them come back asking for refresher courses, or courses looking at the current trends of drug use among young people, so it has been a really positive thing and has been well received by the people they have trained.

The benefits to the clubber are huge. If you go to a club where you know the club staff have been trained, there is less paranoia. Bouncers can be a likely source of paranoia to begin with. You are more likely to attend an event where club staff are well trained and recognise the drugs that are involved. This instils greater confidence in the club, and draws more respect for the staff, because you know that if you or your friends are having a bad time you would go to them now and there would be someone there for you. In the past, the bouncer or club staff would have been the last people you would have approached!