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Speaker 1: Now, years ago, many many years ago, used to be

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Speaker 1: a Saint John cadet and at Football Park as it

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Speaker 1: was back in the day, patrolling the boundary. It was

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Speaker 1: great because you could do that, You could walk around

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Speaker 1: the boundary as a cadet, not just watch it from

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Speaker 1: the stands. I was there for Grand Finals and talking

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Speaker 1: roughly seventy eight to eighty one pageants, Christmas pageants, patrolling

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Speaker 1: the perimeter to Saint John's. Still do that. I haven't

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Speaker 1: seen any Saint John, well not Saint John's anyway, but

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Speaker 1: Ambulance are certainly around for those big events. However, they're

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Speaker 1: calling for volunteers. They already have around regional areas inessa

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Speaker 1: seventy seven country locations, twelve hundred SA Ambulance volunteers currently

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Speaker 1: and they're looking for more. I understand. Let's have a

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Speaker 1: chat with Robert Tolson, whose executive director Country Operations for

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Speaker 1: SA Ambulance. Hello, Robert, so good to know. I wasn't

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Speaker 1: aware that SA Ambulance ran volunteers.

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Speaker 2: Well, we do in our regional community, as you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: seventy seven locations around South Australia, right from Roxville downs

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Speaker 2: to Robe and Kimber to Keith, we have lots of

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Speaker 2: volunteers out there providing high quality ambulance services to their communities,

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Speaker 2: and for us, it's always important to understand that there

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Speaker 2: are more people out there that might be able to

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Speaker 2: pitch in and help and be part of our team

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Speaker 2: in green as we call it now, to make their

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Speaker 2: community safer. And it's a fascinating insight. In the context

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Speaker 2: of the United Nations have declared twenty twenty six the

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Speaker 2: International Year of Volunteers Sustainable Communities, So we see this

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Speaker 2: as a nice opportunity to spread the word and hopefully

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Speaker 2: it get some more volunteers involved with their ambulance services.

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Speaker 1: Do you have volunteers in the Metro area as well

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Speaker 1: or is it just a regional thing.

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Speaker 2: Now, it's just a regional part of our service. The

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Speaker 2: metropolitan area is staffed with paramedics and intensive care paramedic.

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Speaker 2: We have a lot of paramedics and intensive care paramedics

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Speaker 2: in regional locations. What our volunteers do is provide ambulance

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Speaker 2: services in those much smaller communities where it wouldn't be

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Speaker 2: practical or feasible to have a paid presence because of

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Speaker 2: the amount of work that actually occurs.

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Speaker 1: Okay, how do people go about getting the training, registering first,

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Speaker 1: getting approval to become a volunteer to be trained up,

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Speaker 1: Do they need training or do you provide all of that?

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Speaker 2: We provide everything. So we like to point out to

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Speaker 2: people that you don't need to be clinically or medically focused,

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Speaker 2: you don't have to have any experience. We will train

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Speaker 2: you from the get go. They can apply and if

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Speaker 2: they go to SaaS volunteer one word at SA dot covau.

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Speaker 2: That's our website for volunteering and all the information is there,

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Speaker 2: and if they apply online, we'll be in touch. We'll

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Speaker 2: do some checks with them and make sure we've got

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Speaker 2: all the relevant things in place, and then we will

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Speaker 2: look to train those individuals. We provide everything to do

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Speaker 2: the job, uniforms, equipment, and we also provide lots of

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Speaker 2: reimbursements around any cost they might incurse, things like you know,

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Speaker 2: if they have to have childcare for their children so

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Speaker 2: that they can go on shift, we will reimburse the

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Speaker 2: cost for that travel and those sort of things. So

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Speaker 2: we like to look after our volunteers so that we

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Speaker 2: get the best opportunity for them to come and do

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Speaker 2: what they need to do, but also that their communities

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Speaker 2: then get the service that they're looking for.

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Speaker 1: All right, volunteers, so you put them on shifts? I

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Speaker 1: guess volunteers, you know they do they have flexibility in

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Speaker 1: turning down the work or is it a matter of

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Speaker 1: you know, you've committed to this, now you have to

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Speaker 1: do it. Well, what do you require of them? I

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Speaker 1: suppose is what I'm asking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question because people often feel a

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Speaker 2: bit daunted by the fact of or you know, what's

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Speaker 2: the commitment. We're very flexible with our training options. We're

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Speaker 2: also very flexible about how they can fit shifts around

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Speaker 2: their family, work, or social commitments. We try and work

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Speaker 2: with our people to get them to provide some service

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Speaker 2: but also have time away from the organization so that

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Speaker 2: they can still obviously have a work life and have

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Speaker 2: a family life and all those things that go with

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Speaker 2: being a member of a regional community, a smaller community,

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Speaker 2: there's often opportunities for them to be doing other things.

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Speaker 2: We just want Ambulance volunteering to be part of though,

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Speaker 2: that lifestyle that they have.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so twelve hundred, how many do you need?

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Speaker 2: Well, we like to not necessarily put a number on it.

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Speaker 2: What we look for is if more people put their

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Speaker 2: hand up, more people get involved, then that lessens the burden,

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Speaker 2: if you like, on the current twelve hundred. So if

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Speaker 2: that was to increase, then it allows us to spread

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Speaker 2: the workload and spread the opportunity. And the really important

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Speaker 2: thing to remember here is that being a volunteering inal

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Speaker 2: officer means that you will impact someone's life. It will

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Speaker 2: be a person in your community, it could be someone

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Speaker 2: you know, but equally you'll impact your own life where

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Speaker 2: you'll actually develop skills and confidence and resilience and the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to make a difference.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and hourly com weekly commitment, is that sort of

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Speaker 1: what you'd like? Would you like ten hours a week?

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Speaker 1: Would you like twenty ten a month? You got any

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Speaker 1: sort of numbers in mind like that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. We tend to take what the individual can provide.

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Speaker 2: And if the individual says to us, look, I can

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Speaker 2: offer you one shift a week or one shift a fortnight,

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Speaker 2: where will work with that? We do require people to

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Speaker 2: come to training on a regular basis, so you know,

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Speaker 2: every a couple of weeks or so, so they come

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Speaker 2: to a training night, keep the team dynamic alive. But

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Speaker 2: it also enables us to make sure that we're providing

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Speaker 2: updates to to the email so offices and making sure

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Speaker 2: that big practice is current, a very strong training network

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Speaker 2: that sits behind all of this. So you know, one

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Speaker 2: night a week or a fortnight and one shift a

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Speaker 2: week or a fortnight is really what would be looking for.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's funny what you remember and what you learn.

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Speaker 1: I'm mentioning the Saint John's as I did at the start.

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Speaker 1: You know, the basic first aid things you learn in that,

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Speaker 1: like obviously resuscitation for what that's worth in these days.

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Speaker 1: I think the fibrillators do that job really well, but

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Speaker 1: just even things like how to how to tie splints

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Speaker 1: to broken limbs and things. I mean, you never know

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Speaker 1: when you're going to use it, that's the thing.

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Speaker 2: So indeed, and I started as a Saint John kitt

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Speaker 2: it's some forty five years ago, and there are things

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Speaker 2: I learned on in that time that I still use today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I got somebody called Phil saying say hello

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Speaker 1: to Rob for me started about twelve months after me.

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Speaker 1: So there you go. Text somebody knows it. So all right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you've stayed with it obviously, and I don't know, and

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Speaker 1: I was lucky as a cadet, didn't really get to

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Speaker 1: any lucky I say, but didn't really deal with a

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Speaker 1: lot of trauma or anything, you know, in terms of

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Speaker 1: and you don't as a volunteer cadet. You're a kid, right,

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Speaker 1: they don't put you in the back of an ambulance,

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Speaker 1: that's right, But you know, there would be some pretty

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Speaker 1: traumatic incidents that volunteers in that capacity and obviously paramedics attend,

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Speaker 1: and that must be hard to cope with.

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Speaker 2: It's almost part of the job that you will see

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Speaker 2: things that maybe people in normal society won't necessarily see.

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Speaker 2: We have a very strong peer support network and mental

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Speaker 2: health professionals that work with their people, so in the

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Speaker 2: event of a complex case that might be a little

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Speaker 2: bit impactful, whether they're volunteers or paid staff members, that

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Speaker 2: network is available to them, and we often activate mental

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Speaker 2: health professionals to come and talk to the crew and

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Speaker 2: have some conversations. But it's about ensuring the safety and

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Speaker 2: welfare of people generally, so whether that's in a physical

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Speaker 2: sense or a mental health sense, very important in front

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Speaker 2: center and thinking.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I suppose if people are thinking about this,

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Speaker 1: you'd be looking for compassionate people who care for the community,

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Speaker 1: who want to make a difference and really you know,

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Speaker 1: literally help people in a very big way, people in

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Speaker 1: need at a specific moment.

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Speaker 2: Our volunteers bring an incredible strength, empathy, resilience to the

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Speaker 2: team and it's that that then translates across to the

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Speaker 2: people that they meet as patients or as people that

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Speaker 2: they're transporting between hospitals. And they are really not only

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Speaker 2: the backbone of many regional communities, but they're an absolute

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Speaker 2: delight to know and work with. And we're really grateful

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Speaker 2: for our current twelve hundred volunteers and we're really keen

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Speaker 2: to see some more good on board.

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Speaker 1: Are there any areas where you're looking for more specifically

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Speaker 1: more so than anywhere else.

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Speaker 2: For instance, probably more in the regional communities outside of

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Speaker 2: the Adelaide and Adelaide fringe, So if you think about

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Speaker 2: into the Air Peninsula and Dan and the Limestone Coast

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Speaker 2: and but right across the state, and as I said earlier,

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Speaker 2: Roxby nounster Robe and kimber to Keith take We'll take

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Speaker 2: people in any community and have a conversation with them

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Speaker 2: and see if ambulance is the right fit for them.

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Speaker 1: Okay, go cooper pede the canal. But and if you're

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Speaker 1: looking for another eliberation, there is another one, okay. So

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Speaker 1: do they work with staff as well the volunteers, so

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Speaker 1: you know, are they there with someone else or generally

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Speaker 1: on their own, particularly the more isolated they are.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Sometimes they're a volunteer crew in their own right.

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Speaker 2: Other times they'll work alongside paid paramedics. We have the

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Speaker 2: mead Star Retrieval Team which will come out sometimes to

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Speaker 2: support cruise. It just depends on the nature of the

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Speaker 2: case and the location. But we don't leave people isolated

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Speaker 2: on their own wherever possible. And we have clinicians in

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Speaker 2: our Emergency Operations Center down on Richmond Road, which enables

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Speaker 2: them to call in, have a conversation about the patient

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Speaker 2: they have and get some advice and some support to

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Speaker 2: actually do what they need to do. And we also

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Speaker 2: have Regional Emergency Response Network, which is our doctors in

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Speaker 2: regional communities who respond to cases alongside of their volunteers

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Speaker 2: to provide that extra layer, if you like, of clinical oversight.

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Speaker 2: So we try to look after our people by supporting

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Speaker 2: them in a physical sense as I said earlier, and

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Speaker 2: also a psychological sense. But we also want to make

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Speaker 2: sure that it's right for the patient and getting the

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Speaker 2: response is a pretty important part of what we do.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely interesting, rob Thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 1: Now give us the website again or a phone number

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Speaker 1: that people can go to it there thinking about volunteering

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Speaker 1: as a paramedic.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely so. Volunteering is an emails officer a SaaS volunteer

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Speaker 2: at sa dot gov dot Au or they can call

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Speaker 2: one three hundred one seven five five eight four and

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Speaker 2: that all the information will be on the website. But

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Speaker 2: they certainly can bring that number during office hours and

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Speaker 2: we'll be able to get someone in touch with them.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic, nice chatting with you, Robert, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for your time.

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Speaker 2: Likewise, and thank you for your time.

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Speaker 1: May think Robert Tolson, who's the executive director of country

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Speaker 1: operations for SASS subleas as a Ambulance Service. So volunteering

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Speaker 1: at SAS, particularly in the regions, well only in the

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Speaker 1: regions really outside the metro area is where they're looking

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Speaker 1: for volunteers and the further afield the better. So maybe

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Speaker 1: you can help them out. Maybe this is something you

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Speaker 1: have a passion in or an interest in. They'd love

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Speaker 1: to hear from you,