TRANSITION YEAR pupils in Good Counsel College have relaunched a medical campaign in a bid help people in the event of emergencies.Students in TY1 are currently raising awareness of their TIME (Telephone In Medical Emergency) campaign – a relaunch of the existing ICE (In Case of Emergency) programme, which enables first responders, such as paramedics to contact a patient’s next of kin by looking at the ICE contact in the person’s mobile phone.
The ICE programme began in the mid-2000s and while initially very effective, the success and awareness of the programme was short-lived. Many of the student’s generation had neither heard of the programme or had no ICE contact and so as part of their Young Social Innovators project, initiated TIME.
Their newly launched project aims to get people to place the emergency contact number of their next-of-kin in their mobile phones and carry a TIME wallet card listing their medical details and history. This is an effort to assist emergency services in contacting patient’s relatives in an emergency situation in a more efficient manner and to promote efficient administration of medical treatment – without this information treatment may be delayed or ineffective and lives may be lost.
As part of their project, students are encouraging people to store their next of kin in their phone under the contact name TIME and fill out their TIME wallet card to carry with them. In the first few weeks of their campaign students have spoken to their peers in Good Counsel College, sent leaflets home to all parents, created a website for the campaign and a Facebook page. They have also created and implemented lesson plans for national school pupils raising awareness of the importance of personal safety and the TIME campaign, which Cushinstown NS are partaking in, and have made contact with the Department of Health, the Health Minster, local ambulance corps, businesses and hospitals.
