In our yearly teacher in-services at the beginning of the year, we are reminded that, although our first impulse might be to rush in to help a child who has suffered an accident, our first responsibility is to make certain we understand the situation lest we cause more harm from our intervention. Similar advice is given to Boy Scouts: one must be certain of one's own footing before trying to pull someone up. In these cases, it is possible to make a situation worse when working from an erroneous conclusion.
This does not mean that we should not help others. Rather, we need to make certain that what we are doing is not going to make a situation worse. In either case, we need to make certain that we are helping and not simply criticizing.
That's certainly an area in which I need more practice.