OTTAWA, June 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation congratulates Education Minister Bernard Drainville for his announcement to ensure Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in all public schools throughout Quebec.
This announcement will see all public schools have an AED onsite, ready in the event of a cardiac arrest emergency.
“With the ACT Foundation’s longstanding focus on ensuring high school CPR and AED training for students, and AEDs in public high schools, we are thrilled with this Government of Quebec commitment to AEDs for all public schools,” says Sandra Clarke, Executive Director, ACT Foundation. “As a pioneer in high school CPR training beginning with a 1997 Quebec pilot, we are so proud of the hundreds of thousands of students already trained and to see that all students will continue to receive the training before graduation.”
The ACT Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Quebec through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Social Services, has established CPR and AED programs in Quebec public high schools through a partnership initiated in 2005.
The Government of Quebec added CPR as mandatory at the secondary 3 level in 2017 through a budget amendment.
Nine hundred and eighty-two thousand (982,000) students have been trained in CPR to date by their teachers, with 68,000 more students trained each year in CPR and how to use an AED. ACT has trained more than 1,500 teachers as CPR instructors for their students and donated more than 11,000 mannequins to schools. Many lives have been saved.
The ACT Foundation completed its fundraising campaign with Dr. Paul Poirier to see AEDs in public high schools throughout Quebec in 2019.
ACT is proud of the progress it has made since 2005 with the Government of Quebec through implementing widespread high school CPR and AED training based on a sustainable model where teachers teach their students, reaching all students, and looks forward to continued collaboration.
Adding to students’ lifesaving toolbox, the ACT Foundation has now enhanced the CPR and AED Program with Opioid Overdose Response Training (OORT).
About the ACT Foundation
The ACT Foundation is the national charitable organization establishing free CPR and AED training in Canadian high schools, and how to respond to a suspected opioid overdose, a new aspect of the program. The program is built on ACT’s award-winning, community-based model of partnerships and support, whereby ACT finds partners who donate the mannequins and AED training units that schools need to deliver the program. High school teachers are trained to then teach lifesaving skills to their students as a regular part of the curriculum, reaching all youth prior to graduation. The ACT High School CPR and AED Program is made possible with the support of its national health partners, AstraZeneca Canada and Amgen Canada, and provincial and community partners. The ACT Foundation gratefully acknowledges the contribution of Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) for the ACT Opioid Overdose Response Training program.
For more information about the ACT Foundation, contact:
Jennifer Russell
Director of Operations
ACT Foundation
jrussell@actfoundation.ca
Cell: 613-286-5260
