KELOWNA – Dozens of central Okanagan high school students were invited to attend a party at Kelowna General Hospital on Wednesday and Thursday. However, it wasn’t the kind of party you’re thinking of.
“P.A.R.T.Y stands for Preventing Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth Program,” says Blake Birnie, Coordinator of the Central Okanagan P.A.R.T.Y program. “It’s a program to kind of educate the younger generation about the risks involved with texting and driving, drinking and driving, smoking marijuana and driving and just educate them on how they can avoid getting into a situation that might cause them or someone else harm.”
Birnie says it’s a program that is implemented in various schools across the province. Right now, it is just a pilot program in Kelowna, but organizers hope to continue the initiative in the Okanagan going forward.
“The long-term goal is to get every grade 11 student in the central Okanagan through this program at one point,” says Birnie.
The students took part in several eye-opening sessions like visiting a morgue and learning what the experience is like for a family member called in to identify a lost loved one. Birnie says there are four stations in total.
“There’s a crash station where there’s a wrecked vehicle and you have the firefighters, police officer and also a paramedic there to describe what it’s like at the scene of the crash,” says Birnie.
There’s also a trauma room simulation so that the students get an idea for what it’s like to be a trauma patient and what it’s like to have to resuscitate someone.
“We average one case per day of these traumas that come all throughout the Interior Health Authority,” explains Michael Humer, thoracic surgeon and medical director of trauma at Kelowna General Hospital. “A significant number of them come from KGH.”
The experience left many of the students with a new perspective on safety, especially while driving.
“Just seeing the after-effects of what goes wrong when you drink and drive and in motor vehicle accidents, it just it affects so many people it causes such problems to many poeple’s lives,” says grade 12 student Laura Martinez.
According to Statistics Canada, Kelowna ranked highest in the country for the number of impaired driving incidents per 100,000 residents in 2011.
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