Hands for Life and Men’s Sheds
Every day in Ireland, 13 people die from a cardiac arrest and around 70% of these happen at home. By starting CPR immediately, you can double or triple a person’s chances of surviving.
At the Irish Heart Foundation, we want to create a nation of lifesavers by training as many people as possible in the lifesaving skill of CPR, so we have developed Hands for Life, with the support of Abbott and ESB Networks. Through the Hands for Life programme, we are offering to train 100,000 people in the lifesaving skill of CPR over the next two years, which will improve your chance of surviving a cardiac arrest in Ireland.
Hands for Life and Men’s Sheds
We are delighted to have teamed up with The Irish Men’s Sheds Association to deliver Hands for Life training courses to Men’s Sheds in Co. Kildare and Co. Waterford. We have delivered the CPR training in nine Men’s Sheds since March, listed below, and if you have not completed the training course yet, we would like you to sign up to the next training course in your area. These can be found at www.handsforlife.ie.
What you will learn
Hands for Life training courses are taking place in local community centres, clubs and libraries across Ireland. The training course takes just under one hour to complete and attendees will learn:
- How to recognise a cardiac arrest
- How to perform compressions, including hands-on practice on a CPR training mannequin
- How to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator)
- How to respond to a choking emergency
- How to recognise a stroke
Members of Men’s Sheds who have completed the Hands for Life training course have found the course very easy to follow, beneficial and enjoyable. During the course, members understood the importance of listening to the instructions from the call taker on 112 or 999 when making an emergency call and had an opportunity to practice compression’s on a mannequin.
We would like you to remember two important numbers from our Hands for Life training course:
- Emergency Number: 112 or 999
- Eircode: The unique identifier for your location
Completed Hands for Life training course with Men’s Shed:
- 11th March 2019 – Kildare Town Library
- 12th March 2019 – Leixlip Amenities Centre
- 19th March 2019 – ACDAL Training Centre, Allenwood
- 25th March 2019 – Naas Library
- 11th April 2019 – Kill GAA Club
- 25th April 2019 – Maynooth Library
- 3rd May 2019 – Sacred Heart Family Resource Centre
- 8th May 2019 – Thompson Enterprise Centre
- 13th May 2019 – Dungarvan Men’s Shed