26 Jan Charities call on people across East Anglia to help make first aid a compulsory part of the school curriculum
Three of the UK’s largest charities are asking people across East Anglia to help make first aid a compulsory part of the school curriculum, following new research which shows more than nine in ten adults (95%) would not be able to save lives in first aid emergencies.
The British Red Cross, St John Ambulance and the British Heart Foundation – who together form the Every Child A Lifesaver Coalition – are calling on people throughout East Anglia to take part in the Government’s call for evidence on Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education, and join their push for first aid skills to be taught in all schools.
Research, commissioned by the British Red Cross, asked more than 2,000 UK adults about their knowledge, confidence and willingness to intervene in three potentially life-threatening first aid emergencies – helping someone who is bleeding heavily, is unresponsive and breathing, or is unresponsive and not breathing.
The findings show the vital need to provide first aid lessons in schools to address the public’s lack of knowledge and confidence to step in during a first aid emergency. The research shows:
• Only 1 in 20 (5%) people would feel knowledgeable, confident and willing to act in those three scenarios – 95% of people would not.
• Nearly three quarters of adults (73%) in East Anglia lack the knowledge and confidence to act if someone collapsed and was unresponsive and breathing.
• More than two thirds of adults (70%) polled in East Anglia lack the knowledge and confidence to act if someone was bleeding heavily.
• In addition to these scenarios the vast majority of adults (84%) in the region also said they lack the knowledge and confidence to act if a baby was choking.
Further research by the British Heart Foundation showed that 59% of adults in the area would be worried about knowing what to do if they witnessed someone having a cardiac arrest and only 17% of respondents were able to correctly identify the signs of a cardiac arrest.
