“Heart” is the name of a pilot project that was implemented over two mornings at the St. Stefan elementary school. It’s all about heart health. It is to be rolled out to several schools in the district. The dramatic cardiac arrest of a Danish soccer player at the 2021 European Championship got the ball rolling. The idea was born to develop a project specifically for children that would bring together the topics of “prevention” and “rescue” from cardiovascular diseases.
What Hans doesn’t learn…
Elementary school children learn from the first grade on how to provide first aid with the Red Cross Youth project “With Help, I can help”. This school-acquired knowledge was practically repeated and practiced in the “Beherzt” project with the cooperation partners of the Haslach health center, the community nurse of the Haslach region, the Red Cross and the healthy community of St. Stefan-Afiesl.
Prevention better than cure
In addition, the most important aspects of preventing heart disease were conveyed by the experts at the Haslach Health Center. Klara Mair covered the topic of nutrition. Simone Plank and Elisabeth Reiter talked about exercise and yoga, Andrea Winter discussed mindfulness and stress reduction.
“The techniques and exercises taught are also intended to help improve the physical and psychological problems that have increased due to the corona pandemic, such as obesity, anxiety and depressive disorders,” explains Haslach doctor and initiator Thomas Peinbauer.
cardiac massage trained
In the second part of “Beherzt”, the implementation of a child-friendly cardiopulmonary resuscitation was practiced together with the professionals of the Red Cross, the inner workings of an ambulance were explored, bandages were applied and the local defibrillator was visited and explained in a small excursion to the municipal office. “The very positive feedback from parents and teachers exceeded all expectations,” summarizes Thomas Peinbauer.
The children’s great enthusiasm was also noticeable from the school side: “The children really had a lot of fun and were also very interested. We teachers and the students plan to do these great yoga exercises or the ‘courage cards’ to strengthen their self-confidence now regularly incorporated into the lessons so that they bear fruit and are automated,” said director Erna Allerstorfer.
Maria Piermayr, jointly responsible for the healthy parish of St. Stefan-Afiesl and mother of a student: “A really great project, my daughter was very enthusiastic. We did yoga exercises together at lunchtime.” The project can also be introduced in the elementary schools in Haslach, Lichtenau and St. Oswald in the long term.
Source: Nachrichten
