TAAT just asked my children what to do in an emergency ...

[annie987]

Oh dear!! They didn’t!
We have taught this, we did role play when they were younger and they didn’t know!!!
One said call 111
The other said call 911
They are both 12. Oh dear!
We have now been through it all again.

Just asked y 8 and 12 year old, they knew to call 999, ask for an ambulance and knew the address and postcode

Worth teaching your children their address and postcode as well. I work in a secondary school, and it’s actually SHOCKING how many of my students don’t know their own home address (college application forms, postcards home activity, practising writing formal letters, etc).

Is this a good place to tell anyone who doesn’t already know that there are two free first aid apps?
www.redcross.org.uk/apps

They are free, and once downloaded, will work without WiFi or signal.

www.redcross.org.uk/app

A lot of children don't know Mummy or Daddy's actual name.

E.g. What's Mummy's name? It's Mummy.

They don't know how old Mummy or Daddy are.

They don't know the number of their house, nor the road they're on.

So if a child only has a mobile to call off, there is not very much a dispatcher can do in terms of locating them. If they call off a landline, I believe they can trace the address.

It may sound obvious but also remind them its important to listen to the call handler. I fell downstairs when DD was 9 hit my head so hard i stopped breathing.
DD was amazing calling 999 straight away while DH prepared to start CPR but she was so panicked she just kept saying mums hurt send an ambulance and didn't listen to answer any questions. Understandable in her panic of course and she did fantastic just making the call but it is an important thing to remind them.

If you have no service on your network, your phone will switch to any available network to call the emergency services.

Just asked DD(8), she said if there's a fire she should check her door handle and if it's hot then she shouldn't open it and should go out of the window instead (her room is on the ground floor). She didn't know what to do after that so I told her to go to the neighbours and ask them to call the fire brigade. I asked her what she shouldn't do, and she said she shouldn't hide.

Just asked my 7yo. He said dial 999 and then showed me how to do the emergency call from a mobile and access my medical ID (iPhone). Think we will gently introduce what to do in a fire, he tends to get a little anxious and is very literal with things. Thanks for the reminder OP.

I loathe making 999 calls and I'm an adult.

They need to know that it isn't quite as simple as ringing up and going "ambulance please".

At school back in the dark ages we went through a mock 999 call - and I still didn't even really know what to expect the first time I had to do it myself.

I wasn't expecting all the talking the first operator had to do to the ambulance operator, and I made a really common mistake - I'd requested both ambulance and police, and forgot to stay on the line to speak to the police operator after I'd finished with the ambulance one.

Dh and I have iPhones and if you press the unlock button on the side 5 times it gives the option to swipe to call for emergency services.

The eleven year old said she would phone Grandad unless there was a fire then she would rescue the dogs and her bird and then phone Grandad

The fifteen year old asked "What kind of emergency because if it's DSis needing medical attention I would do nothing and pretend I hadn't noticed"

I am an emergency operator. 911 May work from some mobiles in the UK but not all and certainly not landlines. You should only use/teach 999/112.

Every phone has the ability to call emergency services while locked as far as I know?
Can anyone confirm that is not the case?

That's impressive Natsku.

@Sunlov Yes and no. The ability to call 112 while locked is in the GSM standard, but 999 is, as far as I'm aware, not.

Indeed, I had a dumbphone once that could dial 112 when locked but not 999.

You're also supposed to be able to call 112 without a simcard, but that's been disabled in the UK.

This is an example of me being over cautious with my first and not careful enough with #2
Dd1is 8 and knows - but would potentially need to FaceTime daddy or nana if couldn't get on my phone.
Dd1 is 4 and wouldn't have a clue unless she's seen it on a cbbc prog or paw patrol recently.
I only taught her tonight what to do if she got lost at farm/on bus/tube and yet have drilled it into #1 since I became a single parent.

DS(4) is asleep so can't ask right now (though thanks for the reminder to go through this with him!). I think he'd probably try to call the Paw Patrol...

I wasn't expecting all the talking the first operator had to do to the ambulance operator, and I made a really common mistake - I'd requested both ambulance and police, and forgot to stay on the line to speak to the police operator after I'd finished with the ambulance one.

This is a good point. Many people who have never called 999 don’t know that they will be asked which service they require, so when you speak to your kids make sure they know they’ll have to tell the person who answers which they need... then wait til they get put through before they explain why.

I have to listen to 999 calls as part of my job and lots come through where they have just “exploded” all the info at the person who answers.