toh

What does P.A.R.T.Y. mean to you? Probably not the same thing that it does to us at The Ottawa Hospital.

To us, the word PARTY means Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth and it is a program that we offer every week during the school year to high school students.

Through this program, students come to the hospital to experience a “day in the life” of someone who has been in a car crash because they were impaired. This is done through simulation, talks from experts in the medical field, and discussions with injury survivors volunteering their time to speak with the students.

In Canada, the leading cause of injury and death of teenagers aged 15-20 is motor vehicle crashes, with more than 50% of them involving alcohol. As a result, we lose 800 teens a year to injury! We think these deaths are preventable which is why we offer this important program.

This year alone, the PARTY program has been presented to over 1,700 students from Ottawa and the surrounding area. The goal of this program is not to scare teens, lecture them or talk down to them. Rather, the goal is to empower students to make smart choices to reduce their risk of trauma.

The response we have received from students has been phenomenal and we are constantly updating the program based upon their feedback as well as trends in popular culture. Our goal is to think like teens so that we can provide them with a message that relates to what they are experiencing. Our ultimate hope is that we never see them or their friends as one of our trauma patients in the future.

Barbara Mews, RN
Injury Prevention Coordinator
P.A.R.T.Y. program

You might also like…