Public health organisations use ambassadors and other personal influence-based roles such as champions and peers across various health issues. Royal Life Saving WA has been privileged to work with parent ambassadors as part of the Keep Watch program for the past 20 years. The ambassadors have shared their personal stories of toddler drowning in an effort to prevent other families from living the same experience.
To better understand the role of ambassadors in the drowning prevention context, a review of the RLSSWA Keep Watch Ambassador Program was undertaken. The review aimed to:
- Explore the impact of using ambassador stories when promoting toddler drowning prevention; and
- Identify how RLSSWA’s relationship with ambassadors may be improved.
Throughout this review, the children and the incidents that led to their parents’ involvement in RLSSWA programs are remembered. We thank their parents for sharing their stories to advance our understanding of the lived experience of toddler drowning prevention and the Keep Watch Parent Ambassador Program.
The findings of this research can be found in the report below, produced by the Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health at Curtin University.
