Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Yellow Dot Program for Seniors

At last night's Westfield Resident's Association (WRA) Quarterly Meeting, Ed Dypa spoke about a new program for seniors called Yellow Dot. Sponsored by TRIAD, a partnership of law enforcement, senior services and the business community, Yellow Dot is designed to help save seniors' lives in the event of a car emergency. Middletown is the 60th community chartered in CT to be a part of this national program.

Seniors aged 60 and up are eligible for the free service. The program is simple: seniors register by filling out a yellow health form and having their picture taken. This information is then placed in the glove compartment of their car and a yellow sticker is placed on the back window of the car. In the event of an accident, or if a senior has a medical issue while in his or her car, First Responders (Fire, Police and Medical) in Middletown have been trained to look for the sticker, to access the medical information, and to treat the individual accordingly.

According to The Chronicle I received in today's mail, TRIAD will hold a free registration on Tuesday, February 22 and Tuesday, March 22 from 9am - 11am at Water's Edge Center for Health and Rehabilitation, located at 111 Church St. To RSVP, call 860-347-7286. Complimentary refreshments will be served.

The Yellow Dot Program was first developed in Shelton, CT in 2002, and has spread to several other states across the US. The first hour after a serious car accident is known as the "golden hour," or the critical period of time where first responders need as much information as possible to treat accident victims. However, if victims, especially senior citizens, can't provide this information, responders have no way of knowing what kind of medicines or conditions might interfere with the first aid given at the scene. In extreme cases, the wrong medical decisions could be made, and this could have fatal consequences for the individuals involved.

For additional information, the Shelton Police Department has a website for this program with a news article and a power-point presentation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Way to go Mr. Dypa for getting this program implemented for the Seniors of Middletown. Thanks also to the First Responders that will assist with the program. This sounds like a wonderful program and I hope all Seniors in our city will partake in it.