Royal Life Saving Society WA is a not-for-profit organisation, serving the community as the largest provider of water safety education. We have been working towards reducing the impact of drowning and building resilience within the WA community for 110 years. Preventing drowning is the foundation of our organisation. Our programs and campaigns have been developed to empower the WA community to be safe when they are in, on or around the water and ensure that all West Australians possess water safety, swimming, survival and rescue skills.
Every year, Royal Life Saving WA produces the WA Drowning Report. This report examines the factors that contribute to drowning deaths by examining who, where, when and how people have drowned in Western Australian waterways over the last year. The report provides an understanding of the burden of drowning and identifies key water safety and drowning prevention priority areas for action.
Our Health Promotion and Research team deliver four key drowning prevention programs:
- Keep Watch – targeting parents and carers with children under five years of age.
- Youth Water Safety program including the Be A Mermate campaign – targeting youth 15-24 years of age.
- Adult Water Safety program including the Make The Right Call campaign – targeting adults aged 45 years and over.
- Watch Around Water education and awareness campaign run at public swimming pools.
Our vision is ‘a water loving nation free from drowning’. The challenge we face is to ensure every new generation acquires water safety skills and that no one misses out. Our long-term efforts to reduce toddler drowning through our Keep Watch program are working, but continued efforts are needed in order to support future generations of parents. While still in the early stages, our innovative safety messages to reach youth and adults are working, and we will continue our efforts to motivate multicultural communities to enrol in swimming lessons, improve parental supervision at public pools, increase lifejacket use and reduce alcohol-related drowning deaths and injuries.
I encourage people to take a look at our WA Drowning Report including the regional profiles for local data. Royal Life Saving WA collaborates with a range of stakeholders across WA, and I encourage you to get in touch to discuss our programs and explore ways we can collaborate.
If you would like to connect with me (Blanche Marchant, Manager of Health Promotion and Research), please email [email protected].
