When you play in the game of life, you want to hold the best cards possible — especially in emergencies.
An innovative education program, Adults Calling Emergency Services 911 (ACES 911), initiated by the Monmouth County Sheriff ‘s Office under the auspices of Sheriff Kim Guadagno, aims to increase an individual’s odds of prompt emergency assistance.
“The aim of ACES 911 is to save lives in emergency situations and to shorten the response time to emergencies,” Guadagno said. “The program educates adults in determining true emergencies and how to respond when calling the 911 system.”
She said ACES 911 was endorsed by the National Sheriffs’ Association Conference held in Indianapolis in June and will become available to any of the 3,088 sheriff ‘s offices nationwide.
Guadagno said the program was an in-house project and was organized at no additional cost to Monmouth County taxpayers. It involved a partnership with the sheriff ‘s office, the Office on Aging and the Office on Economic Development and Tourism.
John Cuccia, senior public safety telecommunicator, and Kristin Aras, public safety telecommunicator, are the coordinators for ACES 911.
“By educating adults to redirect their non-emergency 911 calls to the proper departments, true emergency 911 calls will be handled more efficiently by dispatchers and lives can be saved,” said Cuccia, a member of Monmouth County’s Public Safety and 911 Emergency Dispatch Center for 11 years.
True emergencies, he said, include health situations such as chest pain, shortness of breath, severe headaches or dizziness and any uncontrolled bleeding. Also, always call when reporting crimes, motor vehicle accidents, any type of audible alarms or when things are out of the ordinary.
Cuccia said an emergency exists when there is an immediate threat to health, life, property or the environment.
“When in doubt, always call 911 because time is of the essence in an emergency situation,” he said.
According to Cuccia, some actual nonemergency 911 calls that have been received included complaints about a neighbor’s noisy lawnmower and questions such as: “When will the power come back on?” “What time or day is it?” “What is the telephone number for …?” and “What time and where are the fireworks?”
He said non-emergency calls can delay response time to real emergencies and can be costly. A survey, Cuccia said, found that a total of 170,000 911 calls were made to the county’s dispatch center in 2007 and 27,000 of those were nonemergency calls.
Each call cost $4.32 not including the phone company’s charges. Memorial Day to Labor Day is the heaviest volume time for all calls.
The idea for the ACES 911 program began in 2002 when Aras took a class with Monmouth County Undersheriff Ted Freeman.
“There was 911 education for first grade students under the Sheriff ‘s Emergency Education for Kids (SEEK) program, but none for adults,” said Aras, a telecommunicator for more than 16 years. “As part of my class assignments, I decided on an education project for adults that eventually became ACES 911.”
Many adults, she said, have not grown-up with 911 availability and often do not understand its function or capabilities in emergencies. People who call 911 wonder why they are being asked questions and why they are being told to stay on the line.
“We need precise information on location and what type of emergency it is so as to send the appropriate assistance,” Aras said. “Also, in certain types of medical emergencies such as choking or the delivery of a child, we are trained to give instructions on the phone. Never be afraid to call 911, even if you just think it is a real emergency.”
The Monmouth County 911 Emergency Center handles calls for 44 of the county’s 53 municipalities. The communities that handle their own emergency calls are Freehold Township, Hazlet, Howell, Marlboro, Middletown, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Belmar and Lake Como.
The ACES 911 program consists of an introductory discussion, a video, a Power Point demonstration, a question and answer session and a take-home summary brochure for participants.
In addition to Cuccia and Aras, other active dispatchers will be trained to participate in the program. To schedule an ACES 911 presentation call 732-577- 5743.