PARTY

The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) resource helps teenagers understand the consequences of risk and serious injury.

The original resource was developed by staff at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and is now staged in more than 70 sites across Canada, Australia and the United States.  This initiative is now a licensed resource from SMARTRISK, a national non-profit organization dedicated to injury prevention (www.smartrisk.ca).  Sunnybrook continues to hold the original copyright for P.A.R.T.Y.

Most regions in Canada run a hospital-based version of P.A.R.T.Y. where students spend the day at a health care facility. In Nova Scotia there is an outreach option that uses an award-winning DVD produced by CBC Television’s Street Cents.  Interactive exercises and two trained facilitators bring the message of injury prevention directly to the school. Injury is the leading cause of death and disability among Canadian teenagers and P.A.R.T.Y. is designed to help change attitudes about risk and injury, and give teens more knowledge so they can make healthier choices to reduce their risk of injury.

Here's how it works.

P.A.R.T.Y. is designed for single classes of high school students.  The 2.5-hour presentation has been endorsed by the Department of Education as a resource at the high school level.

The DVD portion of P.A.R.T.Y. takes students on a realistic and sometimes explicit journey from the scene of a mock car crash, through the emergency department and intensive care unit, and into rehabilitation.  The DVD ends with testimonials from injury survivors and those affected by injury. 

The interactive exercises are designed to get students thinking and talking about risk and injury.  These exercises were developed by faculty and students from the Dalhousie University School of Health and Human Performance.

P.A.R.T.Y. facilitators include paramedics, nurses, doctors, medical students, health promotion students, nursing students, RCMP and municipal police, firefighters and others with an interest in injury prevention.

For information on how to bring P.A.R.T.Y. to your school contact party@gov.ns.ca .