Press Clipping

Emergency Services Ireland - Training In Suicide Intervention Skills

Tuesday, 26th January 2010

Transcript

Source: Emergency Services Ireland

The participation of Howth Coast Guard members in the ASIST course was due to developments in the unit's ongoing Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) programme. As part of its PSAR initiative, the coast guard deployed a new web application in April to track rescue operations. 'Decisions for Heroes' is a reporting and analytics tool that helps search and rescue teams to prevent accidents and emergencies by tracking call-out patterns.

"It is a management information system that allows us to trend incidents, including where and when they happen" said Fergus Cooney of Howth Coast Guard. "We can log on from anywhere and input information like, for example, whether or not an incident is cliff-related. We can then look at how many incidents we have had at a particular spot over the last quarter, for example, and take action to prevent further accidents of incidents in that location."

This is where the ASIST course came in as a means to address the issue of suicide, he added. "The programme allowed us to quickly identify days and times that were high-risk. We found that there tended to be more incidents on Sunday afternoons. What we then did was try to get crew members to do foot or boat patrols so we could prevent something before it happened or respond quickly. We are a voluntary operation so this approach helps us to plan and to use our resources effectively."

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