Lauren Nimmo - Royal Life Saving WA: On Average At Least 3 People Per Week Drowned in WA Last Year.

Lisa and Russell were alarmed to find that W.A has the highest amount of drowning rates in the country so they've started a campaign to re-educate us all about the dangers of getting into the water whether that be at the beach or your backyard pool.

This morning they spoke to Lauren Nimmo from Royal Lifesaving W.A about those alarming rates, why they'r on the increase and the thing we can do to try to stop the rate getting even higher this summer.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We recently learned that WA has the worst drowning statistics
in the country, which really shocked me. And heading into summer,
we want to talk about the importance of knowing how
to swim and also knowing CPR. The latest National Drowning
report shows three hundred and fifty seven drowning deaths over
the past twelve months. That's a twenty seven percent increase

(00:23):
on the ten year average, and that's why Lauren Nimmo
from Rural Life Saving w Way is with us. Good morning, Lauren.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
What is going on? Why the increase?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
It's really disappointing and it's really sobering, I think to
see that both nationally and hearing WA, we saw such
big increases in fatal drowning deaths over the last twelve months.
The fact that WA is recording the highest rate of
drowning in the nation is really quite saddening for us,
and I guess highlights the need for us to do

(00:54):
more to educate people about the risks around the water
so that they can stay safe and hopefully we see
those drowning rates the.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Other way and to put it into some perspective, I
just saw some figures that equated to about at least
three people a week drowned in wa last summer.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I think people tend to underestimate the impact that drowning
has on our community, and it's important to remember this
is only one part of the story. You know, we
obviously see a lot of people losing their lives to drowning,
but we know that there's far more that are hospitalized
every year following a non fatal drowning incident, and a
lot of them sustain lifelong injuries where the spinal cord injury,

(01:32):
brain injury that have serious impacts on themselves, their families,
and their communities as well. So this is saddening, but
it's also a very small part of a bigger picture
around drowning.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
A lot of people hear these statistics about the number
of people that can't swim, and they immediately think, God,
these are probably people from overseas, and I'm guilty of
thinking that too. Misconception number one.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Absolutely. You know, look, there are a lot of migrants
who come to this country who have limited swimming skins.
There are great programs out there now that can help
people learn those important skills that they might not have
had the opportunity that we take for granted here living
and growing up in Australia. However, we actually see a
lot more drowning deaths of people that live and have

(02:15):
lived in Australia for majority of their lives, particularly adults,
you know, people that maybe haven't practiced those skills in
a long time and are getting back into the water.
I think so. I think the fact that we've grown
up around the water, we do take that for granted,
and we do think we are safe when we're around
the water, and perhaps that safety aspect gets put to
the back of their mind when they're at the local

(02:37):
pool or at the beach or at the river participating
in an aquadic activity, and people do need to keep
it front of mind.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, here's another thing that surprised me. The National Drowning
Report shows the latest rates of drowning were in the
lowest of bigger pattern. The lowest rates of drowning were
in children five to fourteen years, and then it rises sharply.
And also the biggest number of people drowning are older
people like my age. I thought we all sort of

(03:05):
did our you know, at school we all had.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
To dot our water safety, but our water.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Safety did our bronze medallion or so, what where's that
gone wrong?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
It's interesting do they forget? I think it's a couple
of things. I think as we get older, people are
perhaps getting back into aquadic activities for a number of
health reasons. Obviously, swimming and aquadic activities have great positive
health outcomes for people as they age, and so it's
fantastic that people are getting back into the water. But

(03:36):
perhaps these are skills that they haven't done for a
long time, so they're jumping back into the water thinking
they can do what they did twenty thirty years ago, and.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Perhaps, like so many things, find out to the countrary exactly.
How can you know we in wa, communities, governments, just
the general person, how can we play a more active
role in preventing I think there's yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think there's a number of things that we can do.
I think as individuals we need to look at how
educated we are about the risks and dangers around our waterways.
I think we need to keep them front of mind
when we're around the water, whether that's supervising young children
at a home swimming pool, whether it's knowing the risks
at the location that you're going to on summer holidays,

(04:22):
when you're traveling within regional wa or to places you're
not familiar with. I think it's educating yourself about what
those risks are and making sure that your skills match
the risks that exist.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, that's key, isn't it. Lauren? How would you define
the difference between knowing how to swim and having survival
water skills.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
It's always an interesting debate and I think that often
people confuse the two and they think my child can
do freestyle, they can swim and stay safe around the water.
At Raal Life Saving we have what we call ours
Swimming and Water Safety Benchmarks, which is really about what
kids should aim to have at the end of leaving
primary school and really children should be able to swim
fifty meters unassisted and either float or tread water for

(05:03):
two minutes. And that's what it is. To stay safe.
It's about being able to help yourself and help others
if they do get into trouble.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
And when you're down the beach in summer, like so
many don't do, try and swim between the flags.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
I definitely swim between.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
The flags because if you do get into trouble, you've
got so much more chance of being helped.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
That's half the battle already done for you. They're telling
you where to swim, believe them, just want to touch
quickly on CPR. It would be only twenty five percent
apparently of wa parents and cares of young children have
CPR training. And yet how critical is timely CPR to survival.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
I mean, it's literally the difference between life and death,
isn't it really? You know, quick CPR brain damage can
occur in minutes of oxygen deprivations. So the most important
thing if someone has experienced a drowning and his unconscious
is to start CPR. And I think some times life
gets busy and that people sometimes it keeps getting pushed

(06:05):
further down the to do list, But it really is
an important life saving skill all that people, especially if
you enjoy both. Yes, it's really important that people have
that life saving skill so that in the event of
emergency they know what to do and they can act quickly, because,
like I said, it really can be the difference between
surviving and not.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Well, we're going to talk about this all this week
because we really want to hammer home this message before
summer hits properly, and so we thank you very much
Lauren from a Royal Lifesaving w WA for helping us kick.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It off lovely, Thanks so much for having me, Thank you,
You're welcome.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Let's stay safe this summer