Preventing Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth

This week’s blog post is brought to you by Marie-Claude Lachance, Project Coordinator of Kingston: Partners for a Safe Community (KPSC).  KPSC is a not-for-profit, charitable organization that work with community partners to provide activities and programs aimed at reducing injuries and preventable deaths, along with promoting safety within our community.

On April 24^th, the first pilot session for the Kingston P.A.R.T.Y. program was held.  Thank you to all students and staff from Sydenham High School who participated!



P.A.R.T.Y. is the acronym for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth. It is an injury prevention program targeted at high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 to educate them about the outcomes of making poor choices.  P.A.R.T.Y seeks to give the students a snapshot of the possible traumatic and often preventable consequence of alcohol misuse and other risk-related behaviour that can lead to injury.

Pictured LtoR:  Captain Rick Vasko, Kingston Fire & Rescue,
student volunteer, and Jeff Burgess, Supervisor, Frontenac
Paramedic Services

The program is a full day offered at Kingston General Hospital. In order to completely involve the students in the experience of injury and recovery, the group is “walked along” the common course of injury and treatment of someone involved in a car crash.  Through a variety of teaching techniques including lectures, videos, simulated trauma resuscitation, tours of the Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Department, and interaction with injury survivors, students see first-hand what it would be like to be injured.  Students are encouraged to think: “What if this happened to me?” There is candid discussion about what choices they could make in a variety of situations that would prevent them, their family and friends from being injured.

Kingston P.A.R.T.Y. program is being coordinated by Kingston Partners for a Safe Community and its injury prevention partners such as Kingston General Hospital, the Kingston Police or the Ontario Provincial Police, KFL&A Public Health, Frontenac Paramedics, Kingston Fire and Rescue, the Ministry of Transportation Road Safety Office and so many more.  Kingston P.A.R.T.Y. is a component of the Trauma Services Program at KGH.  We also encourage partners in the community to support our program with donations to help us enhance the students’ experience.