CRISIS MANAGEMENT GROUP

In cases of natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, large scale accidents), response time is of paramount importance. An amount of 80% of people accidentally involved in emergency situations are rescued by other people standing near them,an amount of 15% by the local authority organized action and only 5% by rescuers or other groups. Statistically speaking, 90% of the help provided is by people with no expertise or specific training on dealing with these situations. In this context, through our seminars, we aspire to sufficiently prepare and educate the citizens of our city to prevent and deal with potential everyday dangers and emergency health conditions and make them able to help themselves, their families or their fellow citizens.

These seminars are targeted at primary and high school students, as well as university students of both state and private educational institutions.

Two seminars of 3-hour presentation

In each school, a four-hour presentation is held, which is of particular themes that concerns the identification and dealing with dangers such as trauma, burns, drowning, fainting etc. This kind of presentation, also, deals with identifying loss of breath and its consequences, how to call an ambulance, resuscitation skills and the use of defibrillator. Rescuers apply these skills in real time and the students practice them immediately after the presentation.

The seminars take place in cooperation with the school teachers, the school principle and the parent associations.

5 to 7 volunteer rescuers are responsible for the first aid trainee seminars, in rotation.

Central Macedonia

The outcome of the presentations is clearly a positive one and this is obvious because:

1. There are many enthusiastic remarks of teachers, parents and students. It is noticed that after their return at home, the students "are training" their parents on first aid issues).
2. There is a continuing increase of calls from schools asking our Organization to arrange new training seminars.

1. This action is in its first year of implementation. So far, there have been three training sessions in 3 primary schools with participation of up 150 children aged between 10 and 12, 150 parents, guardians and teachers in Thessaloniki schools and the wider Central Macedonia.

2. Also, various educational seminars were implemented in vocational schools (IEK Paster & IEK Triandrias), with a total of 130 students from various fields as well as technical and vocational schools in Sindos involving a total of 200 students, aged between 16 and 18.

The results and feedback received indicate that there is a very strong interest in pursuing this action in many more schools in different parts of Northern Greece. There is, also, a similar interest from schools in Attiki for this type of education from our Attiki Crisis Management Team C.M.T. (O.DI.K.) base.