Home: Programs: P.A.R.T.Y.

What is the P.A.R.T.Y. Program?

The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) Program is an injury prevention program that is run at The Ottawa Hospital.

Five days per month during the school year, a group of teens aged 15-18 are brought in to the hospital to learn about trauma (i.e. injury). The purpose of the P.A.R.T.Y. Program is to provide useful, relevant information to young people about injury, that will enable the participants to recognize potential injury-producing situations, to make informed prevention-oriented choices about activities, and to adopt behaviours and actions that minimize risk.

In order to completely involve the students in the experience of injury and recovery, the group is "walked along" the common course of injury and treatment of someone involved in a car crash.

Through a variety of teaching techniques including lectures, videos, simulated trauma resuscitation, tours of the Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Department, and interaction with injury survivors, students see first hand what it would be like to be injured.

Students are encouraged to think: "What if it happened to me?". There is candid discussion about what choices they could make in a variety of situations that would prevent themselves and their family and friends from being injured.

P.A.R.T.Y. is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and is a component of the Trauma Services Program at The Ottawa Hospital. The P.A.R.T.Y. Ottawa program is presented in partnership with The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.

P.A.R.T.Y. Ottawa is associated with SMARTRISK Canada, a national injury prevention organization. There are P.A.R.T.Y. Programs across Canada, in the United States and in Australia. P.A.R.T.Y. Ottawa would not be possible without the assistance of the nearly 100 volunteers from The Ottawa Hospital, the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa and the Ottawa Paramedic Service, the Rehabilitation Centre, and the University of Ottawa.

For more information about P.A.R.T.Y. Ottawa, please contact:

P.A.R.T.Y. Program Coordinator
Trauma Services 
The Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus 
1053 Carling Avenue 
Ottawa ON K1Y 4E9 
Tel: 613-798-5555 ext. 19602
P.A.R.T.Y@ottawahospital.on.ca