Sports injuries project
In addition to the well-known first aid manual ‘Help! First aid for all’, the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders also has a brief manual on sports injuries, which covers first aid and prevention. This package of recommendations is specifically intended for recreational and competitive sportspeople who do not have a medical background or medical training. These guidelines will be updated by the Centre of Expertise by 1 July 2012 in accordance with the evidence-based practice method. In concrete terms, this means that the recommendations are based on scientific studies, and input from the target group and from a multidisciplinary team of four sport experts. The Belgian Red Cross-Flanders and the Flemish Government will be using these guidelines to develop teaching materials and to offer up-to-date information.
Learning routes
The Red Cross Youth is working on learning routes to enable first aid to be integrated into primary and secondary education. For this purpose, a number of questions have been formulated, such as ‘From what age can a child perform resuscitation, put someone in the recovery position, or call the 112 emergency number?’ To formulate the best possible answers, the Centre of Expertise is currently gathering together the best available evidence, collected via a literature search, which will then be submitted to scientific experts and expert first aid practitioners.
Self-reliance
The Belgian Red Cross-Flanders wants to promote self-reliance among the population in the future. One of the possibilities for building on this aim is by sharing information via a website. It is therefore important to know whether communications about risk via the internet are useful or not. This is a question that the Centre of Expertise will be examining. For this project the Centre of Expertise will be providing further support to the Urgent Social Intervention department by gathering together scientific studies relevant to the content of the website.