Canada a World Leader in High School CPR-Now it's Time to Make Mandatory

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Oct. 13, 2011) - CPR is a life skill. All Canadians should know how to provide CPR. Since 1994, the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation has worked with local school boards across Canada, to provide lifesaving CPR training to over 1.8 million high school students.

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Position Statement on Bystander CPR released today (Thursday, October 13) includes a recommendation that CPR should be a compulsory part of high school education. The ACT Foundation has been successful in setting up the CPR program in over 1,500 high schools across Canada, free for students. Three provinces (Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba) have complemented this effort by inserting the program into the provincial curriculum. Hopefully, the CAEP position paper will sway remaining provinces towards making CPR training a part of the high school curriculum.

Since the first Ottawa pilot in 1994, 1.8 million youth have been trained in CPR across Canada. Each year, 300,000 more youth are trained by more than 4,500 physical education and health teachers that ACT has trained as CPR instructors. Schools own the program. High school teachers teach students. Start-up resources including teacher training and training mannequins are donated to schools. Over 40,000 durable CPR mannequins have been donated to schools. ACT's CPR course will now teach students (and provide training materials) to use Automated External Defibrillators.

ACT has pursued a sustainable system change aiming to ensure that CPR remains a protected curriculum priority. But, where CPR is not in the provincial government curriculum, the program is at risk of falling away over time.

Many lives have been saved as students step forward in a wide range of emergencies involving heart attack, cardiac arrest, stroke, drowning and more.

ACT's health partners are AstraZeneca Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation's goal of establishing CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school.

See ACT's roster of many student CPR rescue stories at: http://actfoundation.ca/ACTion-Hero-Bureau.cfm and http://youtu.be/O7gMVLFyR1Y. To be connected with teachers or student rescuers for interviews or to find out about status of program in your local high schools contact Maya Shoucair at 1-800-465-9111.

ACT CPR Facts

• 1.8 million trained
  
  
• 1,600 high schools
  
  
• 300,000 trained each year
  
  
• 4,500 teachers trained
  
  
• 40,000 mannequins