Emergencias Foundation
New area of Corporate Social Responsibility
We always had employees committed to the community. The company has collaborated with different volunteering initiatives and solidarity events.
The company has also provided free health training for different audiences.
We decided that it was time to institutionalize these initiatives to take a significant step in quality. That is why we created the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. Since then, we have a team that works more proactively in the design of high impact social actions.
At the same time, our employees have a reference area to channel all their solidarity or volunteer initiatives
Senior citizens
Training
An important engine of the plan focuses on training people to learn the best ways to accompany and motivate senior citizens. In 2017 we trained a total of 549 people:
• 35 Emergencias employees participated in workshops in which they acquired knowledge in Active Aging that allowed them to participate in a vast range of activities.
• 212 Home Caregivers enrolled in the Unified Registry of Caregivers of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) were trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and first aids.
• 102 Older adults participated in a workshop on guidelines for the prevention of diabetes.
• We offered training courses in CPR and First Aid to 10 Community and Retirement centers were 200 Older Adults were trained.
As part of this training work, linkages, alliances and working networks were carried out with the Department of Elderly Affairs in GCBA; the Ombudsman’s Office; the Commune 6 of the GCBA and the Social Development and Elderly office of the municipality of Morón, Province of Buenos Aires.
In addition to these State Agencies, Emergencias established a strong link with Surcos Foundation, which works together with the leaders of vulnerable communities to generate healthier living conditions. Surcos Foundation had a very important participation in the training of caregivers and companions of elderly people with incapacitating or terminal illnesses.
These tasks usually involve a great deal of stress for those who develop them, which is why Surcos Foundation helped us to provide the assistants with the necessary tools to adequately handle routine situations and emergencies that may arise.
Healthy Stations
Another important axis of the plan was the installation of 13 Healthy Areas in public spaces of the City of Buenos Aires, Morón, Almirante Brown and Tigre. These are tents assembled in high-traffic public spaces, such as squares or pedestrian streets, where health professionals perform basic health checks (controls of blood pressure, glycaemia, oxygen saturation, heart rate) Volunteers carried out cognitive stimulation activities with the elderly.
Up to now, more than 1000 senior citizens had a health checkup in these Stations.
Health talks in the Buenos Aires Legislature
Doctors Alfonso Fonseca and Javier Santos held health talks in the Buenos Aires City Council for assistants of elder people and senior citizens from different retirement centers in the City of Buenos Aires. Topics relevant to the elderly were treated, such as diabetes, hypertension and heat strokes.
Cardiac protected Areas
Cardiovascular accidents are one of the leading causes of death in Argentina. It is estimated that 70% of cases occur outside hospitals. Furthermore, even in cases that do not lead to death, its effects can profoundly alter the well-being of those who suffer them. Therefore, the importance of cardiovascular accidents is rising and it represents a big challenge for health systems.
Aware of this situation, we work on prevention and rapid response to cardiovascular accidents.
The latter is central, since every minute that passes after an accident of this type considerably increases the risks of suffering serious consequences.
The solution we came up with is the diffusion of Cardiac Protected Areas (CPA), which are places specially prepared to respond to respiratory cardiac arrests.
In CPAs there are automatic defibrillators that are simple to use and people trained to start the survival chain, which consists of the following five steps:
Science shows that performing these steps can recover up to 30% of sudden deaths. For this reason, we are implementing this service in schools, universities, sports clubs, hotels, municipalities, agricultural establishments, spas, companies, etc.
Detection of incident and immediate call to emergency service
The performance of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation maneuvers.
Use of an automatic defibrillator.
Arrival of the emergency service and transfer to the hospital.
Post cardiac arrest care.
