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Positive Action Blog July 2021

Despite the Euros fever, we have continued our engagement work and have trained a further eight community ambassadors over the last week, which is fantastic!

A few weeks ago, footballer Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest in front of thousand spectators, with millions more watching live on TV. He received immediate CPR and a defibrillator was used to restart his heart. We all watched with our hearts in our mouths as he was taken away by emergency services to hospital. As a result of this high-profile event, our lifesaving skills workshops have seemed more popular, with both African Women’s Voices and Apna Ghar booking two sessions each for their members and staff. The feedback has been brilliant, with one organisation stating that the workshop has ‘given us confidence to perform lifesaving skills’ and was easy to understand.

In one of the workshop demonstrations, one of our attendees became unwell and required an ambulance. As traumatic as this was for those around them, we were able to give a real-life demonstration on checking for signs of life and putting the person in the recovery position. They also got to witness first-hand the process of calling 999 and the advice you would receive over the phone, including follow up calls from the clinicians, and to see what happens when the ambulance crew arrives, and a patient is transported to hospital. Thankfully, the person is recovering well.

It still surprises me how many people in our communities are unaware of the services we provide and how to access them. I have been reassured by the number of community groups coming forward to be involved as they understand the importance of educating their members.

Engagement in general has been a challenge during the pandemic, however, reaching out to ethnic minority communities has always needed more work for organisations including ours. One community leader told me ‘We’ve been left behind for too long, it has become normal not to engage. We are pleased NEAS is changing the norm and recognizing more work is needed in our communities’

I am still looking to reach out more in communities around Newcastle, Sunderland and the rest of the region.

If you would like to book into one of our lifesaving skills or community ambassador workshops, I would love to hear from you. Please send me an email on loveness.scott@neas.nhs.uk