Alcohol is flooding our health system
January 27, 2013 at 12:07 am | Posted in Security | 2 CommentsTags: alcohol, BYO, child, death, drinking, duty of care, event, hospital, injury, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, party, prevention, safe parties, secondary supply, teen, teenage, teenager, tragedy, U-NOME Security, youth
WA’s new party laws won’t prevent this.
Here’s a lovely article that I read with interest, then dismay: Drunk callouts swamp ambos.
Did you know that Western Australia’s stretched ambulance crews are treating ten drunks a day?!
I find this and other figures sobering.
What a pity other people don’t!
Lie of the land
In WA, more than seven teenagers a week are taken to hospital for intoxication.
Unfortunately, the State’s new reactive party legislation will not prevent alcohol abuse at teen and young adult events.
Whether these parties have supplied or BYO alcohol, it must be managed and served properly.
The only way parents can ensure this is to have an alcohol management plan that includes Responsible Serving of Alcohol.
If they don’t, more and more children will be carted off to hospital – or worse.
Shame game
Parents who collect their intoxicated son or daughter from a party should ask (or be asked) a serious question:
How did they allow this to happen to their child?
I have first-hand experience of parents who’ve:
- Picked up their unconscious child from a party.
- Detoured to a hospital to get their kid’s stomach pumped.
- Collected a kid from hospital who was rushed by ambulance from a party.
- Sent the party host the ambulance and/or hospital bill!
Seriously: does this look like a recipe for ‘good times’ to you?
Parental guidance
It’s really quite simple: adults hosting events must be made accountable
Until we have a party management system that requires parents to apply for a permit that ensures they fully discharge their duty of care, kids will continue to end up in hospitals.
And coffins.
So what will it take?
Must we wait until your family is torn apart by (totally preventable) injury and loss?
The answer is right in front of you.
Please read this and think about it!
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Sweet Sixteen & Utterly Pissed
August 8, 2011 at 7:08 am | Posted in Security | Leave a commentTags: alcohol, booze, car, child, drinking, duty of care, hospital, kid, legislation, Naomi Oakley, parent, secondary supply, stomach pump, teen, teenager, underage drinking
The ‘before 25 shots’ shot ...
- 16-year-old Sophie* attends a gathering at a friend’s house at 4 pm.
- Sophie drinks a bottle of vodka while the host parents party elsewhere on the property – not caring what’s happening in their home.
- Sophie passes out.
- Her eyes roll back.
- Her breathing becomes laboured.
- Her friends become distressed and wonder if they should ring an ambulance.
- The host parents order the ‘hindrance’ removed from their property!
- Sophie’s friends drag her outside, where a mother waits to collect her child at 7 pm.
- This concerned parent immediately takes Sophie to hospital in her car.
- There Sophie has her stomach pumped and is placed under observation for hours.
- What kind of people are these host parents?
- No duty of care for the kids in their home. No supervision. No ambulance. Nothing.
- Letting children drink so much. At that hour. Unsupervised.
- Worse, the new secondary supply law that goes live in February doesn’t cover BYO.
- What is this world coming to?!
- Parents! WAKE UP!
* This story is true. Only the name and photo are changed. Pray I don’t have to do likewise for you.
Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
Naomi Oakley
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