The South Bruce Safe Communities Committee is working with the Grey Bruce Health Unit to create a list of Automated External Defibrillator (AED) locations in the region.
The GBHU says the AEDs are small, portable, and easy to use devices which are able to help restart the heart of someone who goes into cardiac arrest.
AEDs can be found in places like community centres, halls, churches, schools, and businesses.
GBHU Health Promoter Kaela Sales, who co-leads the committee says, “having a current picture where AEDs are located in Grey-Bruce will allow residents to know if the space they’ll be using has one of these potentially life-saving devices available. It also reveals any gaps in AED availability in Grey-Bruce and locations where new AEDs could be placed in the future.”
The Health unit says about 35,000 cardiac arrests occur each year in Canada, with about 80 per cent of those happening outside the hospital, and about one in 10 of those victims do not survive.
Sales says while she does not have a figure for how many cardiac arrests have occurred in the region, they do know the area does have a higher rate of hospitalizations related to cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease and congenital heart disease compared to the provincial average.
“Performing CPR and using an AED on a person who is experiencing cardiac arrest can actually double their chances of survival,” says Sales.
She says the project has been on their radar since the summer.
“We were reached out to by the United Way to see if there were any gaps, if we knew of any locations where AEDs should be located, so that kind of got the ball rolling for us through the Safe Communities Committee,” says Sales.
Organizations, groups and businesses with AEDs can add their locations to the list by emailing pad@grey.ca for those in Grey County or info@brucecounty.on.ca for those in Bruce County. AEDs can also be purchased from various sources, including St. John Ambulance.
A map of AED sites in Bruce can be found here, and the ones in Grey can be viewed here.
