Project S.A.F.

E 2014 (Simple aid for elderly)

Terms of reference
Thank you for agreeing to take over and continue our project and do your part in ensuring that
Singapore can become a more elderly friendly society. This document outlines everything that we
have done so far and some suggested guidelines on how to conduct lessons. We will also be
attaching all our files here for your reference so that you can improve them at your own time and
bring the project to new heights. We would like to advise you to talk this document with a pinch of
salt and adapt accordingly to the task set out for you. All the best!
Table of contents
1. Lesson Planning
2. Conducting First Aid Lesson
3. Things to take note of
4. Annex
Lesson Planning
It is very important to plan for your lesson with your beneficiaries because it is not easy to execute a
first aid lesson impromptu even with prior knowledge. When you are contacting the person in
charge of your beneficiaries, it is important to communicate with him the nature of the lesson that
you are conducting so that he will be able to prepare the beneficiaries on what to expect so that
everyone goes in with the correct level of expectation. You should also ask your beneficiaries about
what language the participants will be most comfortable in using. Ensure you are able to express key
terms using the languages the participants are comfortable with (usually Chinese). You may require
having translation and hence have to prepare.
Introductory session
Bonding with beneficiaries
In-depth theory lesson
Practical lesson
It is important to note that each of the sessions that you want to carry out will require a different
style of teaching with a different end-goal in mind. Keep in mind the purpose of the session and you
will be able to carry out the session efficiently.
Introductory session
The main aim of this session is to establish your purpose at the center with your
beneficiaries so that they will know why you are there. In this lesson, you are merely getting
a feel of what its like during a lesson. You may wish to start off with a lighter first aid topic
such as bleeding or something that is slightly harder but you are adequately familiar with it
and think that it is relevant to your beneficiaries. In this lesson, try to ensure that you are
able to direct the flow of the lesson and try to get the hang of dealing with your beneficiaries.
Always try to ask for feedback from the person in charge so that you will be able to improve
what you are doing. If possible, also ask the participants about how they felt about the
session and their suggestions to get a better feel of what requires improvement.
Bonding with Beneficiaries
For this session, you may want to reduce the lesson content. Instead, you should aim to
familiarize yourself with each and every one of the participants. Your aim here should be to
bond with those who are truly committed to your course and not those who are merely
curious but do not learn anything after your introductory session. This will help to ensure
that your next lessons, which will be far more technical, will be more effective because the
class size is smaller so you are able to focus your attention unto those who truly are
interested in learning. This ensures that your lesson is more targeted and effective in the
long run of the project. This also allows you to build rapport with your beneficiaries so that
they will be willingly to listen to you. Through having these activities, you will be more
familiar with interacting with the participants which will help in the conducting of your
lessons and sessions as you will be more familiar of how to convey the message to your
participants.
In-depth theory session
In this lesson, your main aim would be to dispel any common misconceptions by going into
more scientific sense of your first aid lesson. Even though this will be harder for the
beneficiaries to understand, it actually helps them as they understand the rationale of what
they are doing, this way, they will be able to remember the lesson content without the need
for memorization which is likely to waste huge amounts of their time. Furthermore, it helps
to clarify with them about what they should or should not do in the case of an accident,
minimizing the chances of aggrevation.
Practical lesson
This is actually the most crucial lesson whereby beneficiaries are expected to practice the
steps to carry out the first aid treatment because this will ensure that they are adept at
doing it even when they are alone so that the lessons will prove useful to them. This will also
allow you to further tackle any mistakes they commit during practice. You can invite some
participants to volunteer to demonstrate their treatment techniques to ensure that they are
able to carry out treatment smoothly. It also allows you to correct any common mistakes,
which can serve as a reminder to your participants. Take note: even if the participants claim
they know how to do the treatment, ensure that they demonstrate it to you because when
trying out the treatment practically, then you can point out mistakes that are bound to be
present.
Above all ensure that required first aid materials are either bought or loaned from HCISJAB.
Packing First aid kits-Annex A
Lesson Plan template- Annex B
Conducting First Aid Lesson
During the lesson, some simple things must be observed such as ensuring that everyone is paying
attention, devise an engaging lesson plan, making sure that your voice is audible. All of these factors
and more will affect the overall quality of the lesson and it is up to you how you want to ensure that
everything is done as well as possible.
As said above, there are many different types of lessons that we have generally grouped into the 4
main groups. Ensure that sufficient material is prepared on the day itself and also remind yourself
about the purpose of the lesson. You can feel free to tinker around with the seating plan on the day
itself.
1. Semicircle
2. Circle
3. Free seating (messy)
Semicircle
A semicircle arrangement is suitable for most types of lessons as it allows you to face every
single one of the audience and deliver your message to all of them effectively. It will also
allow you to interact with the audience closest to you and will allow you to see if any of the
elderly have any questions so that you can answer it immediately.
Circle
This arrangement is most suitable for bonding games. This will allow you to build a rapport
with the elderly that will be attending your lessons so that they will be more willing to
attend your lessons. A circle formation is the best to interact with everyone if you stand in
the middle. However, do take note that you will only be facing one half of the audience so it
may not be that suitable for lessons
Free Seating
This is most suited for practice sessions whereby you will roam around and provide more
individualized and targeted feedbacks to the first aider and casualty on the progress of their
practical first aid treatments. This will allow you to track the progress of the elderly and
ensure that the elderly are comfortable in what they are doing. Do keep in mind that the
distance between yourself and the furthest elderly should not be too far and that you should
still be able to talk to all of them with a shout.
Things to take note of
There are many precautions that you consider into your lesson plans whenever you intend to
interact with your elderly
Language Barrier
In our First aid lessons with our beneficiaries, we had to converse entirely in Chinese
throughout the entire first aid lesson. We also had to occasionally switch to dialects to
ensure that the elderly would get the gist of our lesson. Ensure that you go and learn and
search for correct Chinese first aid terms and use them appropriately so that the elderly can
understand what you are talking about. You may want to consult your parents/teachers to
teach you the dialects/languages. Translation may be required.
Taboo
You will also have to work hard to overcome any taboos that the elderlies have. For example,
being scared of practicing first aid treatments due to certain superstition. In this case, you
should first inform the supervisor that the particular lesson will be dealing with the practical
aspect of first aid treatments so that he can pass on the message to the elderly so only those
truly interested will be there to learn. On the other hand, you may want to bond with the
elderly to ensure that they will be willing to overcome such things to practice first aid.
Sourcing and Precautions
Always also take note that all treatments should only be obtained from recognized and
verified sources either by doctors or by first aid organizations, not just anywhere from the
internet.
Always advise the elderly to seek professional help if the symptoms persist or the wound
gets infected. Do take note that the aim of first aid is merely to alleviate the casualtys pain
and attempt to treat the injury, it does not guarantee that the injury will heal, advise all
casualties to always seek professional advice to ensure that the first aid treatment is
complemented adequately.
Annex
Annex A
First aid Kit materials
2 packets of triangular
4 rolls of crepe
5 plasters
Packet of gauze
Things to consider
You may want to consider finding a sponsor for the first aid materials as they can be quite
expensive when bought in bulk. Discuss the matter adequately with your mentor. Try to seek
elderly feedback on the First aid kit to decide on need for upgrading them. The current kit
that we have should be sufficient for home use, you may wish to consider purchasing extra
bandages to ensure that the elderly do not need to wash the bandages after every use.
Annex B
Sample Lesson Plan

1.
2.

1. ()
2.
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Treatment Objectives:
1. Minimise the pain of the casualty
2. Prevent the injury from swelling up again
Treatment Procedure:
1. Place an ice-pack onto the injured area (for at least 10 minutes)
2. Use a bandage to secure the ice-pack onto the injured area.
Take note:
If the injury is very serious or causes intense pain, see a doctor immediately
To prevent the injury from swelling up again, minimize movement of the injured area.
Explanation
Ensure that your lesson plan is bilingual, in Chinese and English so that you can use it as a
reference either for the lesson itself or so that you can distribute it among the elderly to
ensure that they have something to refer to/ revise first aid treatments if you choose to do
so. One possible avenue for expansion would be to create lesson plans in Malay or dialects
to better cater to the needs of our elderly population.
For the treatment objectives, just place in simple terms the aims of the treatments and what
end result you hope to achieve. The Procedure is basically the treatment that the elderly is
supposed to carry out. Make it as specific as possible to reduce chances of misinterpretation.
The last section would just be to state some precautions.