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The AED Instructor Foundation, an NAEMT partner organization, has announced a major initiative to help EMS and fire services place more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in houses of worship to provide parishioners and congregants with protection from premature cardiac death. In cooperation with local emergency medical and fire service personnel and through the Foundation’s special program, churches, synagogues and mosques can receive assistance in setting up an AED program and purchase a low-cost AED.
From the beginning of the effort to establish early defibrillation programs, a major goal has been to establish AED programs in public places and community centers. In many towns and neighborhoods, places of worship are among of the most frequented community centers, said Frank Poliafico, RN, executive director of the nonprofit AED Instructor Foundation.
A well-known emergency care educator and former director of EMS in New York City, Poliafico also noted, Churches are not only a gathering place for large groups of people during traditional weekend worship services, they are often the site of numerous meetings and events as well as education and/or social services throughout the week. Many churches have expressed interest in this new life-extending technology, but until now the $2,000 to $3,000 price tags have been a major deterrent.
The AED Instructor Foundation provides CPR/AED instructor affiliates with a variety of free services and resources to help make AEDs more widely available and onsite emergency medical preparedness more effective. Local EMS and fire services (via their CPR/AED instructors, affiliated with the Foundation) can provide interested churches with a special purchase voucher for the low-cost AED as well as offer needed training and support in managing onsite emergency preparedness and AED programs. Based in Media, Pennsylvania, more than 4,400 certified CPR/AED instructors in 45 countries are affiliated with the Foundation.
To help places of worship in their communities be better prepared for life-threatening medical emergencies, local EMS and/or fire services are invited and encouraged to participate in this program. Interested EMS personnel (as well as members of a parish or congregation) who are certified CPR/AED instructors can join the AED Instructor Foundation free of charge to take advantage this and other AEDIF programs and services.
To learn more about this program or become an affiliate of the AED Instructor Foundation, please visit http://www.aedif.org/ or call 800-572 -2227.
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