Last year, over 6,000 individuals in Los Angeles County got trained in essential life-saving skills courtesy of the Public Health Department's initiative. These skills include hands-only CPR, how to deal with an overdose, mental health triage, and control of severe bleeding. This spanned across both community events and staff training sessions.
Notably, the Community Readiness Champions Gold Medal Training compressed multiple critical emergency response modules into one powerhouse course – offered at no cost. It's a huge effort involving 4,459 Public Health staff, 994 other department staff, 462 community members, and 181 college students, according to a bulletin published by the Los Angeles County government.
L.A. is gearing up for big things – the World Cup, another Super Bowl, and the Olympics are all en route to the City of Angels. “The Community Readiness Champions Gold Medal Training was launched to provide individuals with life-saving skills to take action during an emergency or disaster, especially when emergency response may be delayed,” said Barbara Ferrer, the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in a statement per the bulletin.
With the high-stakes games on the horizon, there's a freshness in the air, a sense that we're all prepping for something bigger. The Public Health Department organized 799 outreach events and completed over 73,000 training modules to make that preparation tangible. Known crisis scenarios demand those response techniques, be it Mental Health Awareness During Emergencies, STOP THE BLEED®, or using Naloxone to reverse an overdose, says the bulletin.
