Supporting the community

As the lead agency responsible for the Extreme Heat Plan, the ACTAS provides information to increase awareness of extreme heat health risks and avoiding heat stress. The effects of heatwave is the second highest identified risk in the 2017 Territory Wide Risk Assessment. Events such as the ESA Open Day and the Canberra Show are some of the community platforms used to increase community knowledge and awareness. More information is available on the Extreme Heat fact sheet.

The ACTAS participates in a range of health and community events or programs, such as the ESA Open Day, the Canberra Show, International Restart a Heart Day, the Special Children’s Christmas Party, the ACT Health P.A.R.T.Y. Program, the ACT Careers Expo and individual school and community group visits by ACTAS Officers in their own time.

PACER stands for ‘Police, Ambulance and Clinician Early Response’. It is a mental health program run in partnership between ACT Policing, the ACT Ambulance Service (ACTAS) and Canberra Health Services (CHS). The PACER team consists of a police officer, paramedic and mental health clinician working together in the same vehicle to respond to, assess and help people of all ages experiencing a mental health crisis in the community. More information is available on the PACER Information Sheet.

Restart a Heart Day is an international Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillators (AED) awareness campaign that was initiated in Europe and is held on 16 October each year. The campaign aims to improve bystander participation in early CPR and defibrillation through the use of face-to-face education and social media. In support of the international campaign the Council of Ambulance Authorities (Australia and New Zealand) receives support from 10 Australian and New Zealand Ambulance Services to participate annually in the campaign. It is a national collaboration with the aim to improve out of hospital cardiac arrest outcomes throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Each year the ACTAS participates in a national survey with all other Australian ambulance services seeking feedback from patients, or the carers of patients, who have been provided with emergency treatment and transport in the two months preceding the survey. Key objectives of the survey are to benchmark perceived service quality and customer experience levels across all state and territory ambulance services. During 2019, 1300 surveys were sent out to randomly selected patients. In the 2019 survey the ACTAS achieved an overall patient satisfaction of 97%”

ACTAS research programs aim to deliver high quality research that improves outcomes for our patients. ACTAS has collaborated with world-class research organisations including the Australian National University (ANU), University of Canberra and Deakin University. ACTAS research has been published in national and international journals and presented at conferences. This work includes cutting-edge research on pain management, sedation, detection of sepsis, and medical management of mass gatherings.

If you have special access instructions to access your property, please email ACT Ambulance at  Ambulance@act.gov.au with your instructions. We will make contact with you to discuss further if needed.