Honiton Carers Support Group met at Honiton Methodist Church on Wednesday 13th October for a first aid training session with Joe Rice, commissioned by Devon Carers.

Winnie Cameron introduced Joe Rice who started off by saying that a normal first aid session would take up the whole day and that he had had to decide what best to include for a session of only one and a half hours.

He gave a short talk on what to do when presented with someone collapsed on the floor, and the importance of how the sequence of action should be carried out, in a variety of situations. He stressed the emergency number to ring is 112 as this number is recognisable throughout Europe.

He brought several mannequins to demonstrate with and proceeded to show us what to do, such as establishing if the person is responsive, breathing, how to tilt their head back to clear the airway and then got volunteers to carry out these procedures.

He taught us the recovery position, and again volunteers practiced how it was done.

The next thing was how to do CPR correctly i.e, thirty times pressing two hands down on the chest by approximately two inches and then two breaths into the patients mouth whilst holding the nose. This to be repeated. Volunteers practiced this and said how hard it was to do correctly.

He also showed us how to use a defibrillator.

The final thing was when someone had choked on something. If they are coughing encourage them to continue to try and clear. If turning blue, hit them between the shoulders with the heel of your hand and if this doesn't work get behind the person, make a fist with one hand and wrap both hands round under the ribs and pull. This was demonstrated on a mannequin.

The above is a very basic description of his session as he covered multiple situations which required different approaches.

It was a very practical and informative session tailored for a relatively short session but covered a tremendous amount of ground. It was very much enjoyed by all as Joe had a very easy manner of explaining and demonstrating things which in turn was easy to grasp by us all.

Win thanked Joe for a most enjoyable and informative session on behalf of everyone, and would in addition like to thank Devon Carers for arranging Joe's visit today.

Honiton Carers meet weekly on Wednesday afternoon, for further information please contact Winnie Cameron on 07974 636926 or email [email protected]