Heatwave water deaths - campaign required

[aurpod1980]

I saw the tragic news of two more lives lost in the heatwave, in water.

I believe there needs to be some sort of National campaign to warn people of the dangers of open water on hot days - or any day.

so many lives lost.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0p7j3lwepo

There are.

the whole reason swimming is on the school curriculum (at a lot of hassle and expense to schools) is to teach basic swimming skills and make parents and kids aware that it’s a skill that needs to be learned.

there is also the float to live campaign.

https://rnli.org/safety/float

While I hate making things about Covid...

Todays mid teens are the ones who missed out on School swimming. And had "normal" swimming lessons disrupted.

I did ask my 13&14yos whter they did water safety at school. They couldnt recall any.
But recently had a lesson about not accepting lifts from strangers.... they were bemused as they saw it as something you explain to younger children.

I agree though.. teenagers do think they are invincible.

I work in a secondary school. We’ve had an assembly this year on water safety. It was pretty hard hitting. I hope it gives some of the teens pause for thought. Though sadly
some
seem to think they are invincible.

I really disagree that dangerous swimming in open water is a youth of today issue. It was part of the summer where I lived as a child.

My friend went against his mum's wishes to not go, as his Dad had swam there as a kid, so I would agree that there is a teenage boy defiance there ( and it's proportionally Teen Boys), but they don't deserve to die for being utterly stupid.

What about parental responsibility? If you live near a body of water where your teens might go, you should've been drumming it into them from a young age. Why does it have to be the state's responsibility to educate them about this?

With what money? The government doesn’t even fund glue sticks in classrooms

This^
I literally had a conversation a couple of days ago with DS about how you should never just jump into water without testing and getting used to it first. I did this once when I was a teen and it was one of the most scary experiences, it literally steals your breath and your body fights between breathing and staying a float. My friend was with me coaching my breathing within seconds whilst helping me float, it took so long to catch my breath.

It’s not just kids tbh. The worst/reckless behaviour I’ve seen was from men /fathers . Not only are they modelling that recklessness, but they’re encouraging their kids to join in. I sit with DD watching sometimes and tell her “see that man there? That’s exactly what you DON’T do!”. Doesn’t hurt that a few times said man came out all bloodied and struggling .

This but in schools as well as on prime time tv. And proper scary ones too - the ones we saw in 70s/80s were scary but effective.

I suppose some sort of absolutely full on heartwrenching testaments from bereaved families might just get through. But who will be funding and who would wish to do this?
To quote a friend who is a manager in Education " There are no services, we're running on fumes"

I still remember the awful warningfilms they showed in the early 80s, still petrified of farms, crossing railway lines and swimming in anything other than a pool. They worked. https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cv2g0jvdvexo

I feel like a slow-burn message from primary would be no bad thing. We seemed to spend huge amounts of time at primary in the 90s learning about road safety, farm safety (ritual area), not playing on ice, even not dropping litter. We just don't have time to do that now because we're too busy teaching 9 year olds the difference between the perfect and continuous tenses or about improper fractions. I always talk to my class about not playing on ice and feel like it's my personal crusade in the winter but there's no requirement for that sort of thing at all and there's no time for actual lessons on it, just snatched conversations when really you should be doing something else.

A campaign by a mother after her son died from cold water shock on a hot day has lead to this being taught in schools (not sure if this has started yet) it’s called Doing It for Dylan her determination and hard work to get this far has been relentless

it’s so sad and she isn’t the only mother campaigning because their child has died in similar circumstances

I agree that teenage boys are often reckless but if the messages get through to just a few then that could potentially save a life

So that’s that then? It’s expensive so we won’t bother?

The money used to develop and administer SATs might be a good place to start.

Swimming lessons would be more useful if they taught swimming for health, safety and lifesaving.
In my day, 80's, we didn't have to muck around with getting our dolphin and butterfly strokes. That was ignored and we just did a decent crawl and breaststroke for 15 mins, treading water for ages (not the pissy 1 minute they get kids to do now) and lifesaving skills.

Most swim curriculums seem to be about spotting the next Olympians rather than getting kids strong and water safe for life.

There are also campaigns against Tombstoning

although These are usually local

https://www.marketingweek.com/campaign-warns-against-tombstoning/

https://www.rospa.com/water-safety/tombstoning

https://www.mhpa.co.uk/latest-news-blog/port-takes-action-to-tackle-tombstoning/

They worked because we never saw any other images or films like them. Now we can go online and see the most graphic images of bodies being blown apart in wars (if we seek it out). Public broadcasts won't have the same impact because they'll be too vanilla.

It's the ones who CAN swim that tend to take the risks, though!

Running on fumes. SATS, utter waste of time.

Parents job.

Swim lessons and education around the dangers of swimming are vital but signs of drowning also need to be taught. Movies have made us think it is yelling for help and flailing around but it is not. If everyone was aware of the signs they could get help quicker or assist in getting the person out the water if safe to do so.

Teenage boys brains are wired to be attracted to risk. Its why they behave as they do.
Add in group dynamics,bravado and lager and any thought of 'that's stupid, we shouldn't do that' goes out of the window. Its why so many of them wrap their cars around trees.
I live near Malvern. We have Gullett quarry. A young man drowned because it's a deep quarry and the water is unbelievably cold. There are fences and sign after sign about the danger. I dare say there have been young men up there over half term trying to break in.

Overall numbers of drownings since the 80s have roughly halved, although I couldn’t find stats on this particular type. There is already multiple sources of information giving the same messages, particularly in a heat wave.

while I don’t disagree that this is tragic, there needs some specific thought on how you get these across so they land.

ermmmm? parents? Mind you locally its a thing to jump off a local dual lane A road overpass into the tidal river below and has been for at least the 30 years I have lived here, and some 50 years ago when i lived in London, it used to be a thing for boys to jump off some of the Thames bridges andf one boy I know broke his neck doing it. I guess its like the young drivers thing, there will always be (mainly) young men who think they are immortal.

absolutely this.