Since 2014, adolescent mortality in the UK has increased from 17.5 to 18 per 100,000 young people aged 10 to 19. Furthermore, assault mortality accounts for 3% of all deaths among those aged 15 to 19. (25 out of 831 deaths in England and Wales). (RCPCH, 2020).
Young people are becoming increasingly more independent and have a propensity for risk taking.
In addition, The Children’s Society says there are approximately 800,000 young carers in the UK. They also report that 39% of young carers said that nobody in their school was aware of their caring responsibilities. (The Children's Society, 2022). So, let’s not forget that our young people will not just be looking after other young people.
So therefore, if young people are at increasing risk of mortality, and many are carers for others, shouldn’t we be empowering them to help themselves and others should the worst happen?
The evidence is clear that better education and early recognition of sudden illness or injury leads to significantly better outcomes. For example, "There is huge geographical variation in out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) outcomes, with some localities leading the way. In Norway, where CPR has been part of the national school curriculum since 1961, the average survival from OHCA is 25%." (The Lancet, 2018). Conversely "In the UK there are over 30,000 OHCA a year where emergency medical services attempt to resuscitate the victim. However, the survival rate is low – just 1 in 10 people in the UK survive an OHCA." (Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests, 2020).
The big question therefore is; If Norway can achieve this then why can't we?
We strongly believe that if young people undertake first aid training early then we can embed the skills necessary for them to care for someone who is injured or unwell, and perhaps even save someone's life. We have been working with children and young people in Norfolk as volunteers for around 6 months now in an attempt to make first aid education more accessible to them.
The government has been listening somewhat. Draft regulations, statutory guidance, and a regulatory impact assessment relating to Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education have been swimming around since 2018 which would mandate both primary and secondary schools to provide first aid training to varying degrees.
In addition, in July 2022 the BBC published some hopeful news centring around defibrillators (AED's) being placed in schools.
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-62192801)
This long-awaited news came from years of the devoted and hard work of Joanne and Mark King, parents of Oliver King who sadly suffered a cardiac arrest whilst in a swimming lesson at school. Oliver’s parents have campaigned tirelessly to make sure that every school has access to a defibrillator.
What’s been your experience of your children having first aid
training at school, or what are your thoughts on this?
Our website is www.nrmedical.training
First Aid Training For Young People
