First aid for older people, in large, clear type
Senior first aid for the fridge door
Five short guides for older people and the people who look out for them: falls, stroke signs, heart attack, heat, and medicine mix-ups. Each one starts with when to call Triple Zero (000) and ends with a card you can print and keep on the fridge.
A guide published by Dotto from official Australian health sources: healthdirect, NSW Health, the state ambulance services and the Poisons Information Centres. Each guide lists its sources at the foot of the page.
General information, not medical advice. In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000). Each guide names its official sources, most often healthdirect.
The guides
Five cards on the door
- After a fall
When a fall means calling Triple Zero, what to watch for after a knock to the head, and how medicines can play a part.
- Stroke signs
The FAST check, letter by letter, and the other signs ambulance services ask you to call about.
- Heart attack signs
The warning signs, and healthdirect’s first aid steps in order, starting with the call.
- Heat
Heat stroke and heat exhaustion: the signs, and NSW Health’s first aid for each, quoted whole.
- Medicine mix-ups
A double dose or the wrong tablets: when it is the Poisons Information Centre and when it is Triple Zero.
Phone numbers
Keep the number where you can see it
Healthdirect suggests keeping the number for Triple Zero (000) somewhere easy to find: next to the phone, or on the fridge, both at home and at work. That small piece of advice is the idea behind this site: the right number, written large, in the place you will look.
| 000 | Triple Zero, for police, fire or ambulance in an emergency. In a medical emergency, ask for an ambulance. |
|---|---|
| 13 11 26 | The Poisons Information Centre, if someone has taken too much of a medicine, even if they have no symptoms. |
| 1800 022 222 | The healthdirect helpline. Healthdirect says a registered nurse is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. If you need urgent medical help, call Triple Zero instead. |
The call itself
A few things worth knowing about calling Triple Zero
- Calls to Triple Zero (000) are always free, and you can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from any landline, pay phone or mobile phone.
- A pre-paid mobile with no credit will still connect you.
- Where possible, NSW Ambulance suggests calling from a fixed phone, to avoid poor reception, patchy coverage or a flat battery.
- Where there is no mobile coverage from any provider, no emergency number will work from a mobile.
- Callers who do not speak English can still ring Triple Zero (000) and say whether they need police, fire or an ambulance.
- On the phone, keep calm, speak slowly and clearly, and stay on the line until the operator tells you to hang up.
Method
Whole steps, or a link to them
Where a guide gives first aid, it gives the official steps whole, in the source’s own order: NSW Health’s heat steps are quoted word for word, and healthdirect’s steps are retold in plain words with nothing left out. Where a state’s ambulance service is the source, the guide says which state. Where the sources behind these guides do not include the steps, the guide links the official page that does, such as healthdirect’s stroke page for what to do while waiting for the ambulance.
Every guide is set in large type with strong contrast, and the card at the end of each one prints on a page of its own.