Gateway Centre Of Excellence In Rural Health Has Launched The Benefitting Rural Area Volunteer Emergency Firefighters Project

by Bob Montgomery

Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health proudly launched the Benefitting Rural Area Volunteer Emergency Firefighters or BRAVE-F Project on August 20th & 21st.

Project Lead, Sage Milne, says the goal of the project is to promote the well-being of our rural fire fighters. “I think it is enormously brave of rural fire fighters to rush into any medical or non-medical emergency or a fire and put someone else's health ahead of their own.” The program is designed to provide medical screening and education of cardiovascular health for rural volunteer firefighters in Huron County. Educational sessions were delivered to the group by Dr. Mike Beazely, PharmD, and Dr. Ken Milne, M.D, to elevate their knowledge and awareness of overall health. The screening pilots took place at Seaforth and Bayfield firehalls.

Sage explained part of the program involved assessing the current state of their health and then looking at what they can do to improve their health. She says some of the steps seem obvious, like eating well, exercising and looking after both their mental and physical health. She says it's very easy to neglect some of those things so it's important to remember that good habits do promote good health.

Gateway research assistants, board members and volunteer nurses all attended and participated in the screenings and the volunteer firefighters were extremely engaged participants in the project as well. 

Sage says this was a pilot screening and the next step is to provide it to all of the fire halls in Huron County and they hope to start that in the fall. Anyone who would like to learn more about BRAVE-F or Gateway's other projects can contact info@gatewayruralhealth.ca or visit their website: https://www.gatewayruralhealth.ca/

Photos courtesy of Gateway Centre Of Excellence In Rural Health