Family-owned and operated Forest Lake business, Allcare First Aid Services, runs monthly cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training courses to keep their community safe.
Established in 2006 by Gary and Susan Johnston, the pair has run community-based courses for all members of the public and industries for almost two decades.
“We’ve also run a number of other different courses as well, which we’ve added to the scope over time, such as spinal management courses, pain management courses, low voltage rescue courses, as well as advanced resuscitation and advanced first aid,” Mr Johnston said.
“We run the courses daily, but our community-based courses are run predominantly on the first Saturday of every month.”
The community courses, run at Inala Community House, include CPR, first aid, and first aid in an education or care setting, Mrs Johnston said. Other courses are delivered on request by businesses or individuals.
“Sometimes we just can’t get to everybody all the time. So we decided to start running those community courses, which we’re filling between 10 to 20 participants per course, to meet their needs,” Mr Johnston said.
“Some people find doing the training on a Saturday morning works really conveniently for them.”
Mr Johnston has 25 years of experience in teaching CPR and first aid courses. He said a sporting injury he experienced years ago sparked an interest in emergency medical treatment.
“I’ve always had a bit of a passion for first aid and community engagement. I also was injured very early on in a sporting incident, and I just wanted to make sure that people were managed the correct way,” he said.
Being able to administer CPR and first aid with confidence and the correct knowledge is important. Research suggests there are often only seconds or minutes to act and minimise the chances of long-term injuries during emergencies.
For example, Heart Research Australia claims a patient’s chance of surviving a cardiac arrest drops by 10 percent every minute they do not receive CPR or automated external defibrillator (AED) shocks.
The same research shows about 26,000 Australians experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year. This equates to about 70 every day.
A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions, causing irregular heart rhythms. Whereas a heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is stopped or blocked.
To meet Australian compliance and workplace industry standards, CPR qualifications must be renewed every 12 months, and first aid qualifications must be renewed every three years.
“We send reminders out to people through our student management system, just letting them know a couple of months beforehand when they’re due for renewal,” Mr Johnston said.
“We send a booking table out to them, letting them know that they can attend the community course.”
For more information on how you can attend a community course or book individually, contact the office on 3879 7170 or email allcarefirstaid@bigpond.com.
