As Co-Chair for the Heart Foundation's - Parliamentary Friends of Heart Health, I would like to share with you their launch of the AED awareness campaign "Shockingly Simple"
What is the Shockingly Simple campaign?
Shockingly Simple is an AED awareness campaign that will run across a four-week period from Monday 14 October to Sunday 10 November in South Australia, leveraging the timing of both Shocktober and Restart a Heart Day.
What is the idea behind this campaign?
Each year, more than 26,000 Australians experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, yet only about 10% of these people survive. A ‘shock’ is the third and final step in the Chain of Survival and an AED is often the missing link. While bystander administered defibrillation can double a person’s chance of survival, only about 2% of cardiac arrests had an AED used by a bystander in Australia.
South Australia will become the first state to mandate the installation and registration of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), with the South Australian Automated External; Defibrillators (Public Access), scheduled to take effect from January 1, 2025.
While the Act provides greater accessibility to AEDs, the Heart Foundation recognises that public awareness and confidence needs improvement. In response to this, the Heart Foundation is launching a month-long campaign to increase awareness and education of AEDs across South Australia in the lead up to the Act taking effect. If successful, this campaign could serve as a pilot for a potential national rollout.
https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/shockingly-simple