‘‘We've got these lovely vomit bags now,'' Philippa Keaney says, smiling.
She has pulled a small, translucent package out of a brown paper bag and is holding it up to show a group of 30-odd volunteers.
The volunteers were there to be trained for their upcoming role as Are You OK? team members at O-Week events, where they will be identifying people who are too drunk - or otherwise incapacitated - and trying to get them help.
Ms Keaney is the student support manager at Otago University Students' Association, and she is running Are You OK? this year.
The training last week was the first in a couple of years, Ms Keaney said.
‘‘We're trying to increase the level of training - as events get bigger, obviously we need to have more volunteers, and also because we need to make sure we're really looking after our volunteers and they're having a safe experience.''
Volunteers learned how to identify people who were too drunk, what they could do to help, and strategies they could use to get drunk people to accept their help. They also learned how to identify when a situation looked dodgy, Ms Keaney said.
‘‘We talked about looking out for those sorts of things - if you feel that there's physical contact that's non-consensual. We also talked about what to do if there's violence,'' she said.‘‘Our message for that is - refer, refer, refer.''
That, too, was an important part of the training, she said.
‘‘If there's some way you can intervene safely, that's great, but if not, it's straight to the team leader.''
Fourth-year student Tui Jackson may be one of those team leaders. She was at the training last week, and this will be her second O-Week as an Are You OK? volunteer - she also volunteered in her second year.
Ms Jackson does not really drink, which means she often becomes the de facto caretaker for her drunk friends when they go out together. Being an Are You OK? volunteer came naturally to her, she said. And she liked doing it.
‘‘It was really nice ... having a role that was pretty much triaging people before they got to the ambulance, making sure everyone's OK. There's also that social aspect, as well, because you're always in pairs. You've got your own safety looked after, because you're in pairs.''
Of course, OUSA is not the only organisation preparing for O-Week. Otago coastal prevention manager Inspector Kelvin Lloyd said police preparations included a ‘‘significant boost'' in numbers of police on duty in the north Dunedin area since Saturday. He declined to say exactly how many more police were on duty, but said it was similar to previous years.
It was important to have ‘‘high visibility'' in the area.
‘‘It's providing reassurance for the students that are attending [O-Week],'' Insp Lloyd said.
‘‘It'll also be focusing on those that are intent on disrupting what is planned to be a well-run week.''
Police would be co-ordinating with several groups throughout this week, including the university and students' association, Insp Lloyd said. .
But back at the Are You OK? training day, Ms Keaney was sure to make the distinction between the volunteer support team and the police. Party-goers should know that if they came to Are You OK? volunteers, they would not be arrested or reprimanded, Ms Keaney said.
That did not mean the volunteers would be acting alone, though. Their training included presentations from an array of professionals who would be working with the volunteers and who had experience with O-Week shenanigans, including Doug Third, of St John.
Mr Third is St John's territorial manager for Coastal Otago. And, he said wearily, he had been working at O-Week for five years at this point.
As he spoke to the crowd, it was obvious his patience had worn thin. Are You OK? volunteers were ‘‘heroes'', he told them.
‘‘You guys are heroes as far as we're concerned, because if it weren't for you ... we would be completely swamped.''Mr Third said last year St John staff had dealt with ‘‘a lot of people affected by illicit drugs''.
‘‘If you're trying to deal with [someone like] that - don't,'' he counselled the volunteers.
‘‘You're not dealing with a reasonable person.''St John had learned to ‘‘take a hard line'' with aggressive party-goers, he said.
‘‘We have a zero-tolerance policy towards people [using] violence towards ambulance staff.''
If someone was ‘‘stupid enough'' to attack an ambulance staff member, they would be arrested, he said.
Ms Keaney stepped back in to say that if a person was ‘‘obviously high but having a great time, it's not our business''.
It was only when people were clearly in trouble - or causing trouble - that the Are You OK? team needed to step in, she said.
Then, she showed the volunteers the vomit bags. And then, she reiterated the point. Volunteers might come into contact with vomit, blood, urine, or other bodily fluids, Ms Keaney told them.
There were support services available for volunteers who had experiences they felt uncomfortable with - bodily fluid-related or otherwise. And, she said, it was probably best to wear clothing they did not care much about.
