LAST Thursday the Alfred Hospital visited The Hamilton and Alexandra College (THAC) after school nurse, Rachel Vallance, contacted the Alfred asking what the possibility was of their team coming to visit after the fatal Bochara crash earlier this year.

THAC then invited all schools in the areas to attend, leading to 250 students from three schools attending the presentation.

The Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth program (PARTY program) is an educational program run all around the world and started in Canada in 1986 by an emergency nurse who was working in the emergency department and recognised the importance of education in this area.

The aim of the program is to give youth education on choice, risk and consequence.

PARTY program coordinator and associate nurse manager at the Alfred Hospital’s Emergency and Trauma Centre, Sue Smith said they had been running the program at the Alfred since 2009 and have done quite a few models of the program and their main model (pre COVID) was where metro and regional schools would come to the Alfred for a full day.

“We also have run regional programs similar to the one in Hamilton, but we would take more staff and deliver it in a performing arts centre and do five of those programs a year,” she said.

“During COVID-19 it then developed into an online program designed to be delivered into the classroom via a remote way, such as zoom or Microsoft teams, and that was a shortened version of your day program, delivering that in the last three years to over 2000 participants.

“There was the horrific accident in Bochara in May where there were four fatalities and one very seriously injured young girl, so Rachel Vallance the school nurse reached out to see if we could deliver a program in Hamilton to increase the awareness of safe choices.”

The program is designed to run for three and a half hours and Ms Smith brought an Alfred Emergency nurse, Andrew Laird, and Alfred hospital volunteer, Lourdes Jayawardena, who is also a physio student.

Ms Smith said they came with a lot of equipment and collaborated with Hamilton paramedics and a Hamilton police detective to share their experiences of being involved in youth trauma to give them strategies to access emergency services if they need them.

“We did a couple of simulations to simulate the care of an emergency patient, we put splints and braces on them so they could experience what it would be like to have an extended period of rehabilitation due to a specific injury,” she said.

“The important thing is the program is about when factors such as drugs, alcohol, distraction, peer pressure, fatigue are involved those things can contribute to young people making high risk decisions which can have major devastating consequences.

“Our aim was to make the students aware of the fragility of life and how important it is when they are out to look after themselves as well as their friends and how important it is to seek the help of emergency services when they need to.”

All of the programs conclude with a presentation of a past Alfred Hospital patient who tells their real-life story of their accident and the rehab and their life since the accident.

It gives a first-hand account from someone who has been through a terrible experience and it gives the students the opportunity to ask some questions to the person involved.

THAC deputy principal, Kristen Waldron said the students are teenagers and they are often quite reluctant to be told what they can and can’t do but if you can make them stop, re assess and consider the consequences of the decision they are about to make then it can lead to a much better outcome.

“It is something we would like to offer all schools every two years and all schools can work together around this area and around decision making and the consequences that come with poor decisions.

 “Inspector Mark James spoke about the police being able to help and support young people and they aren’t an organization to be afraid of.

“Ambulance drivers spoke about the importance of looking after your mates and how to keep them and yourself safe.”