You can help save lives as part of Peel's new volunteer first-responder project

If you call an ambulance in Peel region, there's a chance the first person to see you won't be a paramedic at all — thanks to a new volunteer first-responder program meant to save precious seconds in life-threatening situations.

Launched last month in partnership with Sunnybrook Hospital and the Peel Regional Paramedic Service, the volunteer community responder pilot project uses an app to alert trained and specifically equipped volunteers that an emergency is happening nearby.

Paul Snobelen, the community safety specialist with Peel paramedics, told CBC Radio's Here and Now this week that part of the impetus behind the program was a relatively low uptick in the usage of automatic external defibrillators (AED) in the community, even though they're stationed in public places like schools and rec centres.

Some people, even those trained in their usage, were reticent to use them, or they weren't spotting the life-saving devices, he said.

"But we know that individuals in the community are willing to help," Snobelen said. "So what we wanted to do was find a way to connect those who are willing to help to those who need the help, and to provide the equipment to do it."

Here's how the process works: volunteers who are certified in First Aid and CPR go through an onboarding process. Then they're given an AED, a "stop bleed kit," and in some cases an epipen to treat allergic reactions and naloxone, to treat opioid overdoses..

LISTEN | Snobelen explains program:

Then they are able to download an app that will send out an alert if the volunteer is near an emergency call. If the volunteer accepts, they could be first on the scene and able to provide first aid, with a paramedic on call to provide guidance through the app.

"It doesn't change anything about how our call criteria works. We're still going to send the fire department, we're still going to have police attend," Snobelen said.

In essence, all of the key pieces of an emergency response still happen the same way. Snobelen said paramedics can generally get to a person's door in six minutes or less — but with the increased development of condos and skyscrapers, they also sometimes need to get up dozens of floors, which adds time in crucial situations.

"With our community responders who are either in the building or close to a building, it helps us address that vertical response time as well," he said.

Researchers will also study the program to determine how early intervention improves survival rates. When someone in cardiac arrest gets early CPR and defibrillation, Peel paramedics say, their chance of survival can increase by up to 70 per cent.

"So if we can get help to you as quickly as possible, we can make that difference," Snobelen said.

The program is rolling out at a time where Ontario's health-care system is under particular strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic.