Over two dozen high school students from the Sudbury Catholic District
School Board learned of the dangers of behaviourial and drug-related
risks at a dramatic day long presentation at the Sudbury Regional
Hospital recently. The Grade 11 students from St. Charles College
were participants in the Prevent Alcohol & Risk Related Trauma in Youth also known as the P.A.R.T.Y. Program. This national program was developed in 1986 by an Emergency Nurse at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto at the request of area teenagers concerned about the growing number of their peers being injured or killed because of risk-taking behaviour. Vanda Cooper,
Administrative Director, Emergency and Medical Program in reference to this special program stated that, “Our intention is to eventually present the program once a month during the school year. With four school boards in this community, the challenge will be to get this message out to all students.” Through the course of the day, students were walked through the steps they might take if they were involved in a trauma, including contact with Paramedic services, the
Emergency Department and the Intensive Care Unit. This was followed by a spinal cord/traumatic brain injury presentation and a tour of the
Rehabilitation Unit. The P.A.R.T.Y. Program is now run at 60 hospitals across North America, including the Sudbury Regional Hospital. Cooper states the program already has a proven track record. “A study undertaken by Sunnybrook Hospital demonstrated the positive benefits of this program, with past participants involved in far fewer traumas and alcohol-related driving offences. It really makes young people think before they make an unfortunate, life altering decision,” concluded Cooper.