Preventing Emergencies

Thousands of Australians die each year as a result of injuries. No one knows for sure how many of these victims died from injuries that could have been prevented.

Accidents are likely to occur in and around the home. As these may often be serious you should do everything you can to prevent them.

Look around your home and see if you can identify any dangerous areas, which you can prevent an accident from occurring, particularly to children. For example:

• Can children reach hot or dangerous objects? 
• Are saucepan handles turned away from the edge? 
• Is there a table cloth on the table a child may pull down? 
• How many power points are not fitted with safety plugs? 
• Are there any medicines or tablets in easy reach of children? 
• Do you have any dangerous indoor plants? (i.e. Philodendron and Dieffenbachia) 
• Are there any sharp dangerous tools lying around?

What should you do?

We all respond to emergencies in different ways.

Whether trained or untrained, some of us are afraid we will do the wrong thing and make the situation worse.

If you are unsure about what to do, call for an ambulance.

The worst thing to do is to do nothing.