Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Honestas
Honestas and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) teamed together to construct a training programme to help prevent and reduce attacks on ambulance staff.
The programme gave NIAS staff the knowledge, skills and confidence to deal with aggression and violent incidents. It helped staff assess risks and gave them strategies for de-escalating and de-fusing situations, as well as, in the case of physical attack, showing them how to break away and get away.
The aim of the training was to reduce these incidents by 40%, but the programme surpassed that and reduced incidents by 60% in 2004 and another 59% last year. From a high of 164 incidents in 2003, there were 59 last year. All 496 emergency staff, paramedics and emergency medical technicians were offered the training between November 2002 and April 2005, and in September this year it will be offered to Patient Care Service staff.
For further details on Northern Ireland Ambulance Service and Honestas, please contact DEL Press Office on 028 9025 7872.