More than 2,000 people of all ages across the state learned how to save a life in October, thanks to a reinvigorated partnership between Queensland Ambulance Service and its vital volunteers.
From Ravenshoe in the Far North, to the lawns of the Gold Coast University Hospital, and dozens of towns and cities in between, LAC volunteers and QAS paramedics hosted 46 separate events on Restart a Heart Day (October 16).
The Restart a Heart campaign is one of QAS’s biggest annual public education days as it highlights the importance of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the use of automated electronic defibrillators (AEDs) in the chain of survival.
The QAS has a special connection with more than 1,300 quiet achievers from communities across the state, enabling it to harness this volunteer workforce from 131 Local Ambulance Committees (LAC).
Executive Manager, LAC and Volunteer Support, Lea Kettle said LACs act as a bridge between the QAS and Queensland’s communities, providing free CPR Awareness and first aid education to help build community resilience all year round.
Lea said the QAS’s more strategic approach to this partnership over the last two years also highlighted the valuable knowledge and community connections these volunteers provide to the QAS.
“Our LAC volunteers have been a vital part of QAS since its inception—their original purpose was to support our stations through fundraising to provide cars and equipment for their stations’ teams and their communities’ care,” said Lea.
“Our LACs’ purpose has changed significantly over time, repositioning themselves, to provide free CPR and first aid training to all ages to increase community resilience.
“The LACs are a vital asset to their regions as they’re delivering life-saving education to all ages, which frees up our paramedics to respond to emergencies.
“The LAC first aid and CPR Awareness programs feed a community 'knowledge and skills bank' which increases the number of people in our communities who’d feel confident to respond if someone nearby suffered a cardiac arrest.”
Lea said the LACs and their stations’ Restart a Heart Day challenge was formed during the Biannual LAC Conference in Bundaberg in late August.
“It started with Toowoomba-based Community Education and Engagement Operations Supervisor Michelle Molineux, who laid down a friendly challenge across her region’s LACs to see how many people they could teach CPR to on Restart a Heart Day.
Michelle said Darling Downs and South West Region’s Assistant Commissioner Peta Thompson and the LAC management team were delighted with idea, and word of the challenge spread quickly.
“We then floated this idea to the LACs and QAS teams around the tables as a light-hearted inter-regional competition with important lifesaving learnings, and our challenge was accepted with relish,” said Michelle said.
“Then Baralaba’s OIC Vaughan Mason came up with the tagline, Keep the beats from the bush to the beach, and the challenge was up and running!”
“This challenge was also a really good reminder to everyone that it could be one of our own loved ones—whether friends or family—who experiences a cardiac arrest, and knowing what to do is a good start to helping them survive.”
