CPR skills for kids in Warmun

First aid skills are extremely important for all West Australians, but never more so than in regional areas where access to emergency services is far more limited and response times for paramedics are much slower due to the tyranny of distance.

Royal Life Saving WA is trying to ensure those in regional areas have access to learn vital first aid and CPR skills, so that locals have the ability to respond quickly should they be faced with an emergency situation.

Recently Warmun Remote Pool Manager Stephen Waterman visited the local school to teach high school students the basics of first aid and CPR. With the assistance of local Physical Education Teacher Lauren he attended the school three times to ensure all of the kids had an opportunity to take part in this vital training.

Stephen says the training was enjoyed by everyone who got involved. “I taught them the DRSABCD procedure and took two resus Annie’s along so they could have a go at doing CPR. The kids responded well to the training and showed improvement over the 3 days. It was great to see them learning new lifesaving skills and how they worked together in teams.”

Royal Life Saving WA’s Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pools program provides us with a great opportunity to develop relationships in these remote towns, to not only engage the locals in swimming and water safety education but also vital land-based lifesaving skills.

The Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pool program is supported by the Department of Communities, with the pools managed by Royal Life Saving WA. You can read more about the impact the program has in regional WA at the link below.