Heartstart CPR and Defibrillator Training

A major part of Lomond Rotary’s service to the community is providing Heartstart/Defibrillator Training to local schools, businesses, GP and Dental Practices, all police stations, local golf clubs, bowling clubs and many other local groups and clubs. Some 5,000 adults and children are trained each year.

We have been delivering Emergency Life Support Training to all schools in the Helensburgh/Lomond Area and the wider community for nearly 30 years and Heartstart is now in the Health Education Curriculum in Argyll & Bute and West Dunbartonshire as a Life Skill that all pupils should have.  Teaching young people and adults what to do in an emergency and how to perform CPR has been shown to dramatically increase survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest.

The Heartstart Team is a partnership - Rotary members, First Responders, Police officers, Paramedics and members of the community who have received Heartstart Training and have gone on to become Trainers and join our team.

Working with our partner charity Helensburgh & Local District CPR/Defibrillator Association since 2015 we have placed over 200 PADs (Publicly Accessible Defibrillators) in both Helensburgh area and West Dunbartonshire. Rotary has helped with funding to purchase defibrillators and replace electrode pads and batteries when they expire.

To date over 46 lives in our community have been saved thanks to CPR training and the installation of defibrillators in our community.

We have a number of plans for the coming months. For example, we are looking at the importance of signage and mapping to direct members of our community to their nearest PAD in the event of a Cardiac Arrest.