{"id":122401,"date":"2025-10-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/?p=122401"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:58:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:58:44","slug":"local-towns-become-heart-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/living\/local-towns-become-heart-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Local towns become heart safe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TOWNS in the Bellarine and Surf Coast are now better prepared in the event of a cardiac arrest after being recognised as Heart Safe Communities.<\/p>\n<p>New communities across the state, including Portarlington and Indented Head, have joined the 12-month initiative from Ambulance Victoria and the Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The program aims to improve survival rates in cardiac arrest, teaching residents how to give CPR and use an automated external defibrillator (AED).<\/p>\n<p>Participants also learn how to register publicly accessible AEDs and increase the number of GoodSAM responders.<\/p>\n<p>Fairhaven and Aireys Inlet are graduating form the 2024-2025 Heart Safe Communities with 371 community members learning call, push, shock.<\/p>\n<p>Two new publicly accessible AEDs were also registered, along with the updating of existing AEDs, and an additional five new 24\/7 accessible AEDs added to the community.<\/p>\n<p>Heart Foundation Victoria general manager Chris Enright said these types of initiatives are designed to support and encourage bystanders to take action in an emergency.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In a Heart Safe Community, residents who&#8217;ve taken part in the initiative are equipped with the knowledge and tools to respond to somebody experiencing cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This support includes giving people the confidence to step in and perform CPR, as well as the use of a life-saving AED to help increase someone&#8217;s chances of survival.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Heart Safe Communities are chosen based on how often ambulances are needed, number of cardiac arrests, rates of bystander CPR, number of AEDs available to the public and population and community readiness.<\/p>\n<p>Across the state over the past year, 3,902 community members were trained in Call, Push, Shock and 35 new AEDs were registered.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Heart Foundation is proud to work alongside Ambulance Victoria to provide communities with access to life-saving resources and training through the Heart Safe Communities program,&#8221; Ms Enright said.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the Heart Safe Communities Program, head to <a href=\"http:\/\/ambulance.vic.gov.au\">ambulance.vic.gov.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TOWNS in the Bellarine and Surf Coast are now better prepared in the event of a cardiac arrest after being recognised as Heart Safe Communities. New communities across the state, including Portarlington and Indented Head, have joined the 12-month initiative from Ambulance Victoria and the Heart Foundation. The program aims to improve survival rates in [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/living\/local-towns-become-heart-safe\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":122402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-122401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Local towns become heart safe - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Local towns join Heart Safe Communities, boosting CPR training and AED access to improve cardiac arrest survival rates statewide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/living\/local-towns-become-heart-safe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local towns become heart safe - 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