General News
5 December, 2022
Clunes first in the state for AED signs
All signs are pointing in the right direction for Clunes after the community became the first in the state to install Automated External Defibrillator (AED) street signage. Put up across the town to show where the AEDs are placed, the signs will...
All signs are pointing in the right direction for Clunes after the community became the first in the state to install Automated External Defibrillator (AED) street signage.
Put up across the town to show where the AEDs are placed, the signs will help residents locate and find life-saving defibrillatorswith ease in the case of a cardiac emergency.
Installed in a collaborative community effort between the Clunes Neighbourhood House and Hepburn Shire Council, the signs could improve survival outcomes in patients.
“It is wonderful that these life-saving devices are now highlighted in the community and residents are able to clearly see where their closest AED is located,” Ambulance Victoria Grampians operations community engagement liaison co-ordinator Melissa Buckingham said.
“The further awareness of local AEDs will give the community the best possible chance in the event of a cardiac arrest.
“One day, we may find that these directional signs have helped to save a life.
“We know that early intervention with CPR and the use of a defib is so important in the first moments that someone is experiencing cardiac arrest.”
Increased awareness in a regional setting is an added advantage of the AED street signs, before an emergency has even struck, according to Clunes Neighbourhood House member and Ambulance Victoria’s ambulance community officer Deb Bright.
“Especially when you live in rural and remote communities having access to a defibrillator can be life or death. So the street signs are really important as it alerts the community and any passers by that there’s a defibrillator on site,” she said.
“They’re also certainly being noticed by the community and the signs are highlights in their locations.”
The new street signs can be found outside the Clunes IGA and Clunes Medical Centre on Service Street, Clunes Neighbourhood House on Bailey Street, Clunes Bowls Club on Ligar Street and the Clunes Golf Club on Golfcourse Road.
Ms Bright is also encouraging locals who know CPR to sign up to the GoodSAM app — a platform that puts patients suffering from cardiac arrests in touch with a nearby volunteer who can administer CPR while the ambulance arrives.
“If people have got some first aid training, some knowledge of doing CPR, they should volunteer as a GoodSAM,” she said.
“A GoodSAM is basically a person who agrees to attend a community cardiac arrest with a defibrillator and they are usually alerted first and will be in attendance when the ambulance arrives.”