First aid for disabled people
- 19 Apr 07, 12:32 PM
According to a press release we received this week, the Red Cross are running first aid courses, specifically for disabled people. You could be forgiven for thinking, ah, how nice, now we will know how to attend to a disabled person, if they bump into something, fall over, have a seizure, or some other disability related calamity occurs rendering them injured and requiring some first aid attention. But no, in a fantastic twist, the lovely folk at Red Cross want to provide disabled people themselves with first aid training.
Apparently there are things we can do!
"For instance, a person with a mobility impairment may be able to assist a casualty who is not breathing by giving chest compressions with their foot, instead of getting on their knees and using their hands. They may also be able to instruct a passer-by in what to do."
The volunteers have been trained up, and courses are happening all over the country between now and 2008. They are particularly interested in working with disability organisations, to tutor their staff to, in turn, teach their disabled members the skills.
If you want to find out more, check out
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Comments
I work for Kent County Council as Direct Payment Coordinator. I also use DPs and employ PAs in which context I write now.
I have been working with our local 'Branch' in Maidstone to get courses for PAs and DP users up and running - which has been excellent. We had our first one a few months ago for people in Kent.
I was also a Trainer and Volunteer with the Red Cross for 10 years and I have really only my voice to use - I have been on active duty saving lives and enabling others to gain the skills - including many disabled people since 1994 and I would encourage everyone to get involved - and get's thir PA involved too - it can be great fun.
Interestingly many companies won't let me train people without being able to do resusc for at least 3 mins or hold the full qualification - whether challenged on discrimination grounds or not... so I think there is a way to go yet.
I am trying to contact the organisation that used to be called Pact. Can you help me?
There are a number of organsations out there that do this type of training. Most first aid organisations will offer courses deigned to "suit the audience needs", this means that they will design a syllabus, ensure the tutors are suitably qualified and ensure the lesson plans are suitable for the needs of the audience. This is a common theme in most first aid training organisations. For example please see: