Photo Courtesy of Sheena Collum
File of Life packets were handed out at the South Orange Senior Citizens Advisory Committee meeting. From left are committee members Sandy Lublin, Natalie Hamilton and Trustee Sheena Collum.
By Shanee Frazier, Staff Writer
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — A longstanding emergency assistance program in South Orange will now go further to provide safety to village residents. The File of Life program, which has been sponsored by the South Orange Department of Health for many years, has some new additions to make the program even more beneficial.
The File of Life packet contains a sticker, to be placed on the front door, and a medical and personal information card that provides critical information to first responders in an emergency situation. The card contains such information as medical history, medications, physicians and emergency contact numbers.
Though the program is geared toward senior citizens, the village will also offer the File of Life to all residents who would benefit from first responders having immediate access to medical needs.
The card is stored in a clearly marked magnetized red vinyl case, which is then placed on the refrigerator door. There is also a red vinyl case to keep inside a vehicle.
Sheena Collum, chairwoman of the village’s Public Safety Committee, encourages everyone to take advantage of this program.
“In an emergency situation, there’s no time to waste and by making personal information readily available to first responders, it can mean the difference between life or death,” Collum told the News-Record.
In an interview with the News-Record, South Orange Health Officer John Festa said that the vendors of the program materials recently updated the forms and also provided magnetic strips and stickers.
“This program has been in South Orange for about 20 years,” Festa said. “But the form has been updated to include things that weren’t thought of when it first came out, such as a section that lets an emergency responder know if it is OK to resuscitate a person.”
Festa added that a new aspect of this emergency assistance initiative is the component that allows residents to have a sticker not only in their home, but also in their vehicle as part of another national program.
“Board of Trustee Howard Levison brought attention to the fact that there is a national Yellow Dot Program that puts in the car the same information found in the File of Life Program for the home,” Festa said.
The program is useful for anyone who has a medical condition where obtaining specific information quickly is critical to providing emergency care.
“A person might be diabetic or allergic to penicillin and not wearing an identifying bracelet to let a responder know that,” Festa said. “If filled out correctly, the packet is worth its weight in gold.”
Festa said that all of the emergency responders in South Orange have been trained to recognize and use the File of Life program information when it is available.
“The police department, the fire departments, the rescue squad, they all use this on a daily basis,” Festa said. “They just run to the fridge and if everything is filled out, the guesswork is over.”
There is no fee for the File of Life packet. To obtain a packet, call the South Orange Department of Health at 973-378-7715, ext. 7710, or come to the office at 76 South Orange Ave., Suite 302.