Older People at the Heart of Truro
Everybody is that much safer in Truro thanks to the sterling work of the Truro Active Plus Communities group who have mapped all the defibrillators in the city centre. They have passed all the carefully mapped information on to the City Council.
The Active Plus Communities programme is led by military veterans from Active Plus and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The aim of Active Plus Communities is to tackle loneliness and isolation by bringing older people together in groups, building friendships and confidence and getting older people involved in 20 different communities across Cornwall.
The group were inspired to do their project following some first aid awareness training delivered by the military veterans. John Field, the group member who coordinated the activity explained: “As a group we knew that a heart attack can happen to you at any age and when you are least expecting it – so we were surprised that a map of all the defibrillators in the City didn’t already exist! It is great to know that our efforts will be of value to both residents and visitors alike.”
“Hopefully this approach could be extended to everywhere in Cornwall and surely an App could be designed to bring all the information together in an easily usable form.”
Damien Richards, Community Development Officer from Truro City Council said: “The defibrillator location map is a brilliant idea from this group and has the potential of saving lives. What is really special about the idea is that it came from a group of people getting together to think of ideas that can make a difference in the community.
“This goes to show how important it is to support groups like this, so a big thanks to Active Plus for making this happen.”
Tim Cocks, Managing Director of Active Plus said: “It is great to see the impact of our Active Plus Communities projects. The courses run by military veterans help older people to help themselves through helping others. Too often older people are talked about as a drain on resources, whereas we believe they are a skilled and valuable resource. The Truro group identified a need in their community and really ran with it. I for one will feel a lot safer when shopping in Truro!”
A defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart through the chest wall to someone who is in cardiac arrest. It’s an essential life saving step in the chain of survival. If you come across someone who has had a cardiac arrest, it’s vital to call 999 and start CPR. Then you should find out if there is a defibrillator nearby. And now thanks to the work in Truro we know where they all are.