Education is the crucial key, Where's the Funding?

25th October 2011

Education is the crucial key, where’s the funding?

On my recent driving travels I see “Power Nap area ahead 3km”, “rest, revive survive” and “Speed kills” all along a major highway in regional Victoria. Not one billboard, sign or placard in sight had one message of water safety. Why is that??

Water safety? What is it? I think there is no such thing there is just drowning and injury prevention but it is all called Water Safety. Many just don’t like to talk about it, many are in denial or think they are invincible.

After four days travelling the surrounds of Southern Western Sydney, City and Melbourne to various community groups and the lovely region of Latrobe City Council I encountered many sad and happy truths about water safety.

Unfortunately, I speak about the sad truths because the Happy truths are saving lives. It is comforting to see many swim schools and communities focusing on the back floating and teaching kids the dangers of water.

I am honoured to present Hannah’s story to a group of mothers and their children who are eagerly listening to my talk on water safety. The kids are loving the story about “Josh the Baby Otter”. They dance to his song about learning to float and keeping safe with an adult. The kids look like they get it. Yet in the older group of adults is the real sadness.

Many of them are reduced to silent tears for our Hannah’s story and the kids after her. The videos play and you can visualise the emotion in the room. You can hear the sniffles in the background. I make no eye contact for I’m struggling now too. I ask a simple question. Who here baths their children and goes to the toilet or leaves to get towels or clothes? Many, if not all the hands go up. I am shocked but not surprised by the result of the physical survey. It is rare that we get admissions such as this, but it’s one that we need to combat and now. Bath drownings are increasing and its simple to prevent. DON’T leave a child in water if you or someone else don't have your eyes on them. I am not talking about those tragic stories where carers/victims have had medical conditions and those conditions have contributed to deaths. I am specifically talking about those supervisors who leave and then are not supervising.... get the drift?

Now, I am not backward in coming forward. I am also not here as an advocate and educator to make friends. Some agree with me, some don’t. I do what I do because I am passionate, I have a purpose to honour my daughter Hannah.
I am not shocked by the admissions of these mothers but what does make me angry at them is that some people just don't get it. You just don’t leave a child in a bath and walk away. Not even for a second. With no backup plan in place as a barrier, another supervisor would be great because there is no substitute for supervision, especially not a bath ring or the child’s ability in the bath water. The range of excuses to justify their actions, to themselves were coming thick and fast. I had an alternative comment for every one of them. Trust me. Then one mum said “Oh but she can hold her breath at swim lessons we practice all the time in the bath, I would hope drowning never happens to us its why she goes to swimming lessons”.

That’s right a lot of people do rely on hope. Hope they won’t be next and hope that it won’t happen to them. To really bring the message I risk it and play the first three minutes of my 000 call. For anyone who has ever heard the full version the screams through the speakers ring in your ears for days if not weeks. I think the message is getting through now. The mothers are now bawling and I make no apology for it.

To educate is the key, the 10 second risk I call it. It only takes a split second for a child to slip and then another 10 to lose consciousness and then you walk back in, maybe a few more seconds later or even minutes, and then by now you are so frantically attempting to save them. By this time it’s nearly a minute or more has passed and the brain is slowly dying. The sad reality is that 93% of the time CPR FAILS! So why bloody risk it? Always Supervise your child around water and NEVER leave a child alone in water and walk away. Always Supervise them, nothing in life is too important that you have to take that risk.

Another sad reality is blow up pools, the cheapies from $2 shops or the Blue ones with dodgy filtration systems that hold over 2000 litres of water. In the same group of mothers 8 admitted to owning and erecting these pools illegally. Their landlord wouldn’t have a clue, their real estate is none the wiser because the pool doesn’t exist come inspection time and the council obviously doesn’t have a register of it either. SO how can you make an illegal pool compliant?? I reckon these bloody pools should be banned from being sold in the first place. No permit for construction or fencing, no purchase. Simple in theory but damn hard to police.

The education quickly turns to swimming lessons. Sigh. Hannah could swim, your kids can ‘swim’ I say. Then the penny drops. I ask how many of their pools are heated to the degrees that their children learn to swim in? NO hands go up. So here we have eight families, illegal pools, non heated pools and all of it equaling a bloody horrible disaster.

Cold water kills kids and adults too. It’s as simple as that. I remember jumping in fully clothed in my shorts and tank top that fateful day and pulling our naked daughter from our freezing cold pool. Only days before her and her father had both gone blue from having the time of their lives in our unheated pool. Two days later Hannah died from a massive heart attack which I now contribute to the temperature of the water. The massive shock to my breathing, my muscles contracting and my attempts at getting Hannah out of the pool all come flooding back in flashbacks. I excuse myself to get a drink of water. Thinking... why is this happening? Don’t they get it?

The conversation continues that Hannah’s story could be theirs, it’s really only a matter of time. Time that I really don’t want to have to face ever again but do because people are not educated.

The whole system of blow up pools makes me wild. I’ve written numerous letters and reports to the Offices of Fair Trading and Consumer Affairs Minister on this very issue and not a lot is being done. You can import pools yourself online. We just can’t stop it. Education is the key and that too is a struggle and most of the battle.

Where are the water safety messages? The budget for advertising isn’t huge but we need it. Who else will promote the dangers in the fullest truth without gaining something in return? Who will help promote messages without being paid? The list goes on, on what to do, how to educate and do it all on a budget that could, well doesn’t exist really. Donations should be directed to families for support and medical equipment services, not signs on billboards that costs thousands. It’s a tormenting decision that our board has to make.

We need to, as a community, together, help promote the educational messages of water safety. It isn’t just one person spreading their own message, it’s not just one organisation, there are many. However, the messages are silent, silent as the killer drowning itself. We just can’t hear them. We need to hear them. For the sake of little kids. For when a little kids dies the voices are the loudest and persecute the parent, wouldn’t it better to prevent it in the first place?
There are many childhood dangers that are advocated, supported and emotionally promoted. Why is our cause not given the same opportunity of understanding, compassion or empathy? Is it because it’s our fault? Our cause is just as important, as we raise awareness to child drownings and save lives. Save lives is what we hope to achieve. Why are we less important? Well it certainly feels that way.

I support child safety in its entirety but the financial system of Government funding needs to be a whole fairer. Don’t you agree? I can see more time away from my family, being consumed by my passion doing lectures such as these to save lives. All because we aren’t funded. We aren’t supported until sadly it’s too late and then I’m attending another funeral. Seeing another child in a coffin is just another facet of the duties we do here and helping another parent write their child's eulogy.

Would you swap your paid job for mine? I’d love a normal job with real pay. Ive never been paid for my work for Hannah and never will. I have also never been paid for media despite others in the community spreading vicious rumours! Id like to put the record straight on that point because such nastiness hurts our advocacy and disrespects our members and our daughter Hannah. The Foundation has NEVER EVER sold Hannah's Story and will NEVER do so!! Record put straight.

Prevention sounds a whole lot more sensible. Education is the key because there is no cure for drowning only prevention in the first place.

Kat Plint
25th October 2011

Courtneys Rule - WHY?

13th October 2011

Why the rule for Courtney?

On June 11th, 2011 the knock at the door came for Cathy and Anthony Simon. A knock that no parents should ever have to endure. The police notifying them, that their beloved 14 year old daughter Courtney was missing presumed drowned in Lake Macquarie.

As a parent of a child who drowned the numbness in your body is paralysing. The voices of those around you are blurred into echoes, you just lose sight of reality that this, this is all a very bad dream. It’s a joke right? It surely can’t be true?

In the days after Courtney’s body was found the reality set in for Cathy and Anthony. The anger came in waves and the questions mounted.

Here was a young girl, their beloved daughter, full of fun, laughter and the sunshine of her parents eyes gone in a split second. Drowning is quick they say but it is also preventable. So, if the Rule for Courtney that day was compulsory for her to wear her life jacket why am I supporting these two loving parents in their grief and despair? A simple rule. Rules that every boatie or licensed person on the water knows. It’s in the tests for licenses BUT... Don’t you hate the BUT’s in life?

That day Courtney was with friends. Friends who were unlicensed, in an unregistered boat (so its reported) and sadly a boat that was placed in water by other adults who should have known better. I’m not here to debate the faults of that day. The whole tragedy is just tragic and sad.

Courtney told her mum they were setting out on Friday but they never left. The weather was calm, however Saturday took her life in one wave of water and for hours she fought currents, tried to swim and then lost the strength and fitness to continue. Courtney drowned. Her life gone. All because she wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Could you swim in those conditions against all the odds? Not many do.

So, in partnership with Hannah’s Foundation, the Simon Family are now educating everyone on the water. It’s quite simple. If entering water in a boat or water vessel of any type ??? WEAR YOUR LIFE JACKET.

Just because you can swim doesn’t mean you won’t drown. Courtney is proof of that. A life jacket is your seat belt on the water so don't be a fool, just wear it. There is no excuse. Too many people in the past two weeks have lost their lives all because they were not wearing their life jackets.

The current laws are that children under 12 MUST wear a life jacket. Adults and children must wear them when crossing bars or the weather changes. The decision is discretionary to the skipper. Why not just make them compulsory instead for everyone and save the unnecessary heartache? It’s a bit late once you are swamped, if your boat is upside and you are fighting for your life in panic and trying to find that life jacket. What an enormous burden boaties have placed on them. Sadly for Courtney, her skipper is tragically burdened too, because a day of fun for three teens turned horribly wrong. If only for the life jacket.

So instead of wondering why us crazy parents in grief and anger like myself and Cathy get on the bandwagon and jump, scream up and down and cause a kafuffle with rules, legislation and creating awareness to save YOUR life or someone else you know. Think about it.

I have a saying; the “Maths of Water Safety”. We all love maths don’t we? The true cost of saving a life on the water is about $150 for a grade one PFD. The cost of a funeral and plaque is in excess of around $8,000 - $19,000 depending on where you live. If you can’t pay, you resort to the guilty burden of the Government assistance program or charities like us that try to help. The referrals from GPs to psychologists for counselling the grieving in excess of over $2,000 on Medicare and out of pockets around $4000 because many need counselling, they cry every day. All of this in just six months and this is for the parents not siblings or anyone else.

Not to mention the additional costs of those parents or survivors of tragedies that end up in psychiatric facilities because they tried to take their life. The cost of medications to try and pretend to be ‘okay’. No parent is ‘okay’ when they lose a child.

Then, as in 60% of families add the additional impact of parents losing their jobs (on in many cases quitting) or are so incapacitated with grief that they now rely on Centrelink to survive. The key here is Survival but the journey is bloody tough. Surviving through the tears, the list of challenges to breathe normally goes on. Oh, and to add to the list, if people do survive a drowning, the costs of hospital care on a permanent basis are excruciating.

All of this affects you the general public. Yes this hurts YOUR hip pocket come State and Federal budget time. Have I got your attention now? The maths of water safety. $150 vs $? What would you choose?

The increases in the costs to healthcare, provisions for the services by Government agencies, the huge enormous waiting list many parents find themselves on (unless they have Private Health then the costs go up even more) and government coffers paying out monies to families on Centrelink all because a $150 life jacket wasn’t worn. The seat belt of the water.

If you are a person with the slightest understanding of safety principles, you too, would support Courtney’s Rule and the other safety rules we advocate. Every person on the water has to wear a life jacket. That every boatie be licensed, learner boaties need more experience as you do with a motor vehicle. add to that the essential element of experience and knowledge that keeps us safe.

Courtney’s rule at least means Courtney didn’t die in vain It’s saving lives based on sound principles – not wrapping in cotton wool..

All of this could have been avoided if only for the $150 Life jacket.
Kat Plint
13th October 2011