Young lifesavers
- In the UK someone has a heart attack every two minutes.
- Almost 1.2 million people have been trained by Heartstart UK in schools and the community.
- A gift of £140 to the BHF could pay for supply cover while a teacher trains as a Heartstart UK instructor.
Young life-savers
The Heartstart UK schools programme is an initiative coordinated by the BHF, to teach school children what to do in an emergency, especially if someone has a heart attack. Emergency life support skills are easily and quickly learned. They involve a simple set of actions which, if applied promptly, can keep a person alive until professional help arrives. The BHF provides the resources and support to schools so that teachers can pass on these skills to children across the UK. The initiative is already saving lives.
Schools are the ideal environment to teach emergency life support skills, as part of the curriculum or in after-school clubs. Children from the age of 10 can learn the full range of skills and many of these can be learned by much younger children, as Caitlyn’s amazing story shows. Young people are as likely to be present at the scene of an accident or emergency as any of us and, if they are properly trained, they are just as capable of applying emergency life support as adults. There are other benefits for children too, as the initiatives help to promote community spirit, inclusiveness and individual self-esteem.
Action
2005/06 saw a significant new milestone for the Heartstart UK schools programme, with the 1,000th school trained in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
Impact
Lucky people like Caitlyn’s Nan already know just how important these schemes are: “Thank goodness for Caitlyn. If she hadn’t had that lesson at school that taught her life-saving skills, I don’t think I would be here now. I’m so proud of her.”
Like Caitlyn, there are many other children with stories to tell. Around one in five Heartstart UK schools reported that students have used their skills in an emergency situation and on average three students in each of these schools have had to administer emergency life support in real life.
Next steps
The Heartstart UK schools programme continues to be a great success and, as we aim to increase the number of affiliated schools to 1,200 by 2007, more children across the UK will one day be able to tell their children that they have saved a life.
A key focus in the next year will be to bolster the Heartstart UK schools programme in England and Wales, to catch up with the success in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Further developments will include the funding of three Schools Training Officer posts. These pilot posts will be employed by ambulance services in Scotland, Wales and England, and one of their key responsibilities will be to support existing schools in continuing to deliver their training to children.
Special schools projects funding will continue. These projects aim to establish emergency life support programmes in schools through partnerships with organisations such as the Heartstart UK community scheme, primary care trusts or voluntary societies.