Prepared by the Washington State Drowning Prevention Project
Tizzy Bennett, Kathy Williams, Tony Gomez, Mady Murrey,
Roxanne Basford and Tim Bernthal
April 1998
General guidelines for improving programs
- Work from the data you have from your area
- Use multilevel interventions (individual, group, peer, school, community etc.)
- Take a comprehensive view of risks and outcomes
- Emphasize protective and positive factors
- Systematic skills training
- Adult and peer modeling and reinforcement
- Focus on social norms promoting prevention
- Work from a solid theoretical and empirical base
- Keep parents and teens involved
- Do not rely on information-only programs
- Use a long-term perspective
- Don't limit program implementation to the school environment
- Collaborate with community partners and through your coalitions
Include youth in everything you do
- Give them control
- Give them decision making power
Understand Risk Factors
- Address Perceived vs. Actual
- Overestimating swimming skills
- Underestimating water conditions
- Non use of life jackets
- Playing wolf
- Lack of skills or impetus to evaluate a potentially dangerous situation
Work with swim programs
- Include open water risks and safety issues in swim programs
- Create learn-to-swim programs specific to pre teens and teens
- Provide life jackets that fit teens at public pools for loan and for use as part of swim classes
Emphasize use of life jackets
- Include life jackets for teens as part of marine patrol and other loan programs
- Promote the use of stylish life jackets in local advertising, media photos, summer fashion shows etc.
- Encourage life vest use for non-swimmers or poor swimmers
- Encourage life vest use when swimming across a river or lake
- Encourage life vest use in small boats
- Sell life vests at loan sites
Work with the media
- Ask that the media mention whether a life jacket was worn or not for all drownings and near drownings
- Increase overall awareness that teen drownings are an issue by working with the media throughout the spring and summer
- Use any drowning as an opportunity for prevention messages in the news or to visit the school of the victim
Address signage and access
- Identify and place signage at high risk water sites where drownings have occurred
- Identify and promote safe and unsafe water sites
- Support life guarded beaches and promote use of these sites for swimming and water recreation
Emphasize role of alcohol and drug use
- Increase awareness of risks and outcomes of alcohol and other drug use while swimming or boating.
Highlight adult and teen role models
- Focus on adults in your efforts. If teens see that adults and their peers never wear life vests, then they won't either. Same issue with drinking around the water.
References
- Seattle King County Drowning Prevention Coalition, West Region Drowning Prevention Coalition and the Yakima Valley Drowning Prevention Coalition
- Smith, GS and Brenner, RA The Changing Risks of Drowning for Adolescents in the US and Effective Control Strategies, Adolescent Medicine, Vol 6(2), June 1995
- Durlak, JA Successful Prevention Programs for Children and Adolescents, Plenum Press, 1997
- US Department of Health and Human Services, Developing Effective Health Communication Strategies for High Risk Youth Outside of School
- Washington State Drowning Prevention Network
Focus Group Findings
News Clipping Analysis
Death Certificate Review
EMSC Adolescent Drowning Risk and Prevention Grant Application