In Australia people are not recognising the warning signs of heart attack and are taking too long to seek appropriate medical help. This means that more people are dying or living with permanent heart damage.

The Heart Foundation recognised that more needed to be done to improve peoples knowledge and awareness of the warning signs of heart attack and that more needed to be done to encourage people to call Triple Zero (000) when they experienced the warning signs. To achieve this important goal the Heart Foundation has developed a comprehensive campaign titled 'Will you recognise your heart attack?', which aims to reduce heart attack death and disability by reducing patient delay in responding to the warning signs of heart attack and calling Triple Zero (000).

Everyone has a role to play in spreading the lifesaving messages of this campaign. Health professionals, community leaders, sporting groups, individual community members can all make a valuable contribution by learning the warning signs and sharing this information with patients, colleagues, family members and loved ones.

To save lives, the campaign will:

• seek to make sure that all Australians better recognise and respond to the warning signs of heart attack
• influence change to systems that contribute to patient delay.

The Warning Signs campaign targets specific population groups:

• people with existing heart disease and their families
• men and women aged 45 years and older
• remote Australians, with a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

To date, the campaign has: