BUNBURY Regional Hospital is playing a leading role in alcohol and trauma awareness for Bunbury youths, even winning an award for their efforts.
The P.A.R.T.Y Program (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) originated in Canada and has operated at Royal Perth Hospital since 2006 with Bunbury picking it up in 2011 as the first rural site in Western Australia.
Acting Bunbury program coordinator Mauretta Johnston said Bunbury students were shown the equipment and procedures used by paramedics and emergency doctors to stabilise trauma patients to get a sense of the loss of control, fear and uncertainty that comes with trauma.
“We really look at the ones you can’t fix like spinal trauma and head trauma so the ones you can’t recover from that you are going to need a long rehabilitated process from and that is going to affect your family as well,” she said.
She said medical staff show footage of road traffic accidents with paramedics demonstrating what happens on the road side after the choices youths might make.
“We take them for a walk through the emergency department as if it’s them so we tell them to imagine they have eight doctors and nurses around them, that they are naked and that this is their family having to sit in rooms and experience it from that perspective,” she said.
The program is available to all schools in the South West with both public and private schools from as far away as Narrogin and Harvey taking part.
“The program runs throughout the school calendar year and we endeavour to fit in as many schools as possible but we do have a waiting list,” Ms Johnston said.
The target age group is 14 to 16 years with 33.8 per cent of students who attended the Bunbury PARTY Program already having a Learner’s Permit or a Provisional Licence.
The program has won a WA Country Health Service South West Safety and Quality award.
