Residents of Coolamon, Marrar and surrounding areas have welcomed an initiative to help them better understand the process involved during an emergency, including making triple-zero calls.
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The Advance Marrar group, the Coolamon ambulance station and members of the local Rural Fire Service have begun an campaign that distributes information and educate residents about what to do during all types of emergencies.
Awareness information includes:
- The expectations of the caller and the call centre operator.
- Provision of information that may prove beneficial – such as medications used by patient, medical history, exact location, physical features of the property.
- Education of children in making emergency calls.
Farmer and RFS member John Pattison said it was a positive.
“There’s a lot of stress when people are in an emergency situation, so we’d just like to ensure that residents and emergency service personnel understand each other.
“What this [campaign] does is that it helps people be more engaging and give better information when calling for help,” Mr Pattinson said.
The initiative comes eight months after the opening of the Coolamon ambulance station.
“In the past, we didn’t have an ambulance station so people took anyone injured to hospital themselves, so this is something we need to change,” Mr Pattinson said.
There’s a lot of stress when people are in an emergency situation, so we’d just like to ensure that residents and emergency service personnel understand each other.
- John Pattison, farmer and RFS member
He said the campaign was the next phase that builds on the success of receiving a local station.
“The community has fought hard to get an ambulance service and now we need to be aware that it is for us.
“We’ve got to embrace the triple zero network – not just for ambulance but also the fire brigade, police and SES,” he said.
Mike O’Donnell, president of Advance Marrar, said the initiative also came because of the need to help emergency services identify house numbers, street and road locations and rural addressing.
“The majority of Marrar does not have curb and guttering; therefore, residents need to ensure their houses are properly numbered and identifiable from the roadside.
“Having the house number obscured by an overhanging tree branch or any other obstruction makes it so much more difficult for the emergency services to locate residences,” he said.
“For emergency services, the rural numbering system is extremely important as they use these numbers on our rural roads to locate a farm’s position and access point,” Mr O’Donnell said.
Coolamon ambulance station officer Krissy Jeffrey, who was named the Ambulance NSW employee of the month for May 2018, said it was also about building rapport with residents.
“It’s about introducing us to them and assuring them during stressful situations,” she said.
It’s about introducing us to them and assuring them during stressful situations.
- Krissy Jeffrey, Coolamon ambulance station officer
The station has also offered to visit and speak with local groups, as well as exploring opportunities to visit schools to educate students.
“For children, it can be quite scary when they see people in uniforms approaching them while they’re injured or sick.
“We also teach students other things that we, as adults, take for granted – like telling them to call ‘zero, zero, zero’ rather than ‘triple zero’ because they may not know [the latter],” Ms Jeffrey said.
Mr O’Donnell thanked Ms Jeffrey, saying she and her staff “have been absolutely amazing” in giving their time and sharing information.
“Rural towns and community services would barely exist without the cooperation and collaboration of the vast numbers of unpaid volunteers that serve them,” he said.
