Roles and ethics

Street medics serve a variety of roles, both in and out of protests.

• Street medic - our basic role, and its history.
• Affinity group medic - many medics work inside a group of protesters, unmarked, rather than working with a "rescue squad" of street medics.
• Street clinician - someone should write this article.
• Community health worker (CHW) - many street medics consider themselves to also be para-professional health workers.
• Wilderness first responder - First aid training favored by street medics.

Street medics hold themselves to a very high ethical standard. They emphasize over and over again the importance of Do no harm interventions, consent, always working as 1/2 of a buddy pair, and knowing their own limits.

Street medics are partisan medicine, providing care as a means of support in a social struggle. Their deep respect for everyone they treat is not just how they maintain their own safety; it is their purpose for doing this work.

• Athens manifesto - proposals about medic rights and responsibilities to each other, drafted at the Medics Gathering, held in Athens in August of 2001.
• DNC medic points of unity - Ethical standard for street medic care at the 2004 protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
• CGHC points of unity - Points of unity adopted in September 2005 by the clinicians who founded Common Ground Health Clinic in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
• Some expectations of street medics - Some basic things that are expected of street medics are for protection and efficacy in treating patients. By a member of BALM, Boston, c.2003.
• OWS medics code of ethics - From NYC, 2011..
• Usage of the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems - Usage of the Red Cross symbol to identify yourself is restricted by internation law. This page tells why and gives you some alternatives.