Preventing Drowning, Supporting Non-Fatal Drowning Survivors
In a continuing example of how many backyard swimming pools are not compliant with Safety Standards. This article from the Daily Mercury in Queensland shows that 90% of pool owners are failing compliance checks at the time of sale or lease…….
Mackay pools fail safety checks
90%……. would your pool be the one of them…… use this check sheet to help you make sure it is NOT.
We really appreciate people linking to us via social media and we would like you to keep us in your Facebook feed. For the longest time, Facebook gave you no ability to control what content you see or keep in your Facebook news feed. We really appreciate how many people have already “liked” our Facebook page. But only […]
Supporting children disabled by non-fatal drowning A core focus of the Samuel Morris Foundation is supporting children who are disabled as a result of a non-fatal drowning (or what is often incorrectly referred to as near drowning) or other hypoxic … Read More.....
Is your pool as SAFE as it can and should be? Video lessons on correct pool fencing. The Samuel Morris Foundation has been working in partnership with KidsHealth at the Childrens Hospital at Westmead and the Swimming Pool and … Read more
Congratulations on taking the first step in giving your kids a skill for life! Getting your children involved in water safety and swimming lessons is one of the key steps you can take to help make your children safer around the water. Accredited … read more....
I had my pool inspected recently and found out that although it was compliant several years ago, it appears that the regulation have changed to make it ‘more safer’. I will gladly do the alterations, but I think we are missing a point here. Despite all the regulations, kids are still drowning at alarming rate. There is no fence that will replace adequate supervision – and this doesn’t mean a 6yr old sibling. This doesn’t mean they’ll be fine in the shallow while I am on the phone. Nether it means that non swimming children visiting my house will be allowed on the other side of the fence without their parent. Maybe we should be more proactive in making kids learn how to swim. Make it rebateble, make it available for everyone. I think that pool owners would rather spend money on swimming lessons for an unkown child that maybe can’t afford it then spending it on alterations on pool gates. Something to think about…
Zoe, thanks for commenting, and thanks for being willing to make the alterations to your fencing. I would like to address you comment about “missing the point”.
No one thing in isolation will prevent children drowning. Drowning prevention and awareness requires a SYSTEM of measures.
Supervision is the number one preventative action in this system.. but the reality is that NO parent can keep their eyes on their child 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We also know from research and coronial inquests that there are two main reasons children drown. 1 A breakdown in supervision and 2. Non-compliant or non-existent pool fencing. We know that the vast majority of children where believed by their parents to be safe and away from the pool area, but after wandering out of supervision have accessed the pool via non-compliant/non-existent pool fencing.
Accordingly correctly installed and maintained pool fencing provides an additional barrier to children getting into the water if they escape supervision.
Learning acquatic safety and swimming skills are also a big part of the overall drowning prevention and awareness strategy and we are concerned by recent reports of the numbers of Australian children that are not achieving basic aquatic safety skills.
The final part of the system is parents/care-givers knowing CPR in case of emergencies. When an accident happens (and this relates not just to drowning/near drowning) parents/caregivers are the first people to find the children and being armed with the right skills may well be the difference in saving the child’s life.