First Aid taught to senior citizens
A series of training sessions concluded today at the Mercy Center as part of activities to mark World First Aid Day. Trainers from the Belize Red Cross were on hand to prepare the elderly on how to cope with emergency situations. Considered as the vulnerable population, they were taught basic first aid skills. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports.
Delahnie Bain, Reporting
First Aid training sessions have been taking place throughout this week at nursing homes in Belize City. It coincides with the theme for this year’s World First Aid Day on September eighth, which Belize Red Cross National Trainer, Winnie Parchue says focuses on vulnerable populations.
Winnie Parchue, First Aid National Trainer, Belize Red Cross
“Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating World First Aid Day and the theme for World First Aid Day for 2012 is “First Aid With the Vulnerable People”. We have realized that we have the elderly in our society which are always, always vulnerable because things can happen to them and they are not able to take care of themselves. So we decided for the week, from the fourth until today, we went to each and every one of the elderly homes in Belize City and we’re doing first aid with the clients and also the staff members.”
Today’s workshop was at the Mercy Care Center where elderly persons as well as the staff, were taught how to respond in the event of a mishap or emergency situation.
Winnie Parchue
Winnie Parchue
“The vulnerable aspects that we believe that they would come in contact with on a daily basis would be burns, how would they take care of themselves if they get burnt; we also do broken bones because we know that at the age that they are, they are very liable to fall and injure themselves; heart attack because it is one of the conditions at their age also because the majority of them suffer with no communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension and then we also do CPR. We’re also training the staff members in CPR methods because the majority of them don’t know how do I take care of somebody whose heart has suddenly stopped beating, how do I do CPR, how will be effective and the reason why because it’s very important. I need to ensure that I have the heard to start beat before medical help gets there.”
According to Parchue, she was glad to learn that the older persons are well aware of the health risks that come with age.
Winnie Parchue
“They are interacting with each other and they are also learning something. And as you could see earlier, they are the ones who actually told me what should I do if this happens to me and that makes it very important because they are aware that I might have this risk and then I would need to know what to do if it happens.”
Delahnie Bain
“So what have you thought so far about the participation that you’ve seen in the different sessions?”
Winnie Parchue
“Oh I am very, very glad that you asked that question because I have realized that they participate very well, they ask questions and it’s because of their age that they cannot move—because they would want to be doing CPR also—so we realize that since they won’t be able to do CPR, we have to show them basically how do I treat a fracture? How do I take care of that? What if I get burnt? What if one of my friends has a heart attack? They have to recognize the signs and symptoms so that they will be able to go and help and then the staff members can come in and assist them.”
And while this year’s World First Aid Day activities were geared towards vulnerable persons, Parchue encourages everyone to learn first aid.
Winnie Parchue
“What I would like to say for this year is for Belizeans to realize how important first aid is. First aid should be learned by each and every person; our vulnerable, our children, our adults, our drivers, our tour guides; each and every person. It’s very important for you to come and learn first aid and we are making it accessible now because it’s not in every case that you should pay for first aid. It should be accessible to everyone because it’s a very, very important venture and it’s a very important skill to learn in your life.”
Today’s session at Mercy Care Center was the last for the week. Delahnie Bain for News Five.
Training sessions also took place at Help Age Belize and Golden Haven.
