Keeping Watch in country WA

When it’s cold outside, parents may not be thinking about keeping their kids safe around water, but young children’s water safety is a concern at any time of year.

This winter, Royal Life Saving WA has been spreading the message about toddler drowning risks, and the actions parents can take to prevent a tragedy, through a series of Keep Watch parent presentations in regional WA.

Twelve water safety presentations for parents have been delivered in the Wheatbelt, South West, Great Southern, Midwest and Pilbara regions, reaching nearly 100 parents eager to learn more about this important topic.

The Keep Watch presentations educate parents about the biggest drowning risks for young children and strategies to keep them safe, including close supervision and the use of appropriate barriers. Many sessions also included a demonstration of CPR for children and infants with parents remarking on the importance of knowing how to respond in an emergency involving their child.

Rachel Murray, Royal Life Saving WA Keep Watch Coordinator said “sharing Keep Watch messages with regional parents is a high priority for us. In addition to the usual dangers around the home, there are many other locations on regional properties such as dams, creeks and water troughs which can pose a serious risk to a curious toddler.”

Our ability to reach parents in regional towns has been greatly improved in recent months with several of our regional community trainers putting their hands up to deliver Keep Watch presentations locally.

There has been huge interest from community and parenting organisations right around the state to offer the parent presentations to their community. Our aim is to have community trainers available to deliver the Keep Watch presentations in every region of the state in the near future.

If your new parent group, playgroup or community centre would like to host a Keep Watch presentation please contact us via the below link.