Street Safety hosts resources for protesters.

HALT(S)

HALTS is an acronym for a basic needs check-in. Are you too:

Hungry

Angry

Lonely

Tired

or taking yourself too Seriously?

Using HALTS

In high-stress situations, buddies use HALTS to check in with each other.

Consider what excess or deficiency of each of the inventory items feels like. For example, "lonely for others" is an unmet need for empathy and human connection. What about "lonely for self" -- an inability to get any personal space for too long? At street protests, "too cold" or "too wet" sometimes belongs on the list -- hypothermia masquerades as tiredness.

HALT helped people violently evicted from Zuccotti Park during the raid of Occupy Wall Street in 2012. People's food, sleeping area/home, social network, etc had just gone in a way that made them chokingly angry. Support focused on when they last ate and how they would get their next meal, where to sleep that night, who they could get in touch with, how to find jailed friends, and healthy venting of anger.

HALT also helped Ferguson affinity groups in 2014 during the exhausting wait for the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson, the cop who murdered Mike Brown.

History

HALT originated a long time ago (1940s-1950s) through Alcoholics Anonymous members crowdsourcing how their relapses could have been prevented. Narcotics Anonymous World Services endorsed HALTS at a literature convention in the 1980s. 12-steppers love acronyms, slogans, and self-inventories they can use for journaling. HALT(S) is all three. It beats the hell out of "are you ok," "how are you," and other BS platitudes!

Psych peer-run groups (including the the Freedom Center in Western Mass) identified prolonged lack of sleep as far and away most common cause of psychosis and suicidality. Nursing orients many procedures towards promoting sleep. Promoting sleep helps a lot of people stay out of the hospital.

Source

Modified from original here. Used with permission. CC BY-SA.