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Katie Woolf spoke with Keep Watch 2020 Stephen Gazzola · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Joining us in the studio right now is Steve Gazola
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  Speaker 1: from Royal Life Saving here in the Northern Territory. Good morning, Stevedie. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: very well mate. I know that we're obviously always all
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  Speaker 1: trying to keep our kids safe around water and keep
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  Speaker 1: ourselves safe around water, but there's always that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that concern, certainly when it comes to young ones and
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  Speaker 1: keeping them well.
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  Speaker 2: Water safe well. Northern Territory Sorry, Royal Life Saving Northern
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  Speaker 2: Territory has discovered that as soon as the child turns one,
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  Speaker 2: their risk of drowning triples, so they're really trying to
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  Speaker 2: get out in the world, trying to discover what's going on,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously within this Christmas period the build up's happening.
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  Speaker 2: What a heat wave we've been having, So being vigilant
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  Speaker 2: around the water is really important at this time of year.
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  Speaker 2: And for one drowning death is way too many. It
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  Speaker 2: affects the family's, effects you community, and we're finding that
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the parents that have had that bad
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  Speaker 2: ex experience, that that really traumatic experience has said that
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  Speaker 2: it was unexpected that drowning happens when you're not expecting it,
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  Speaker 2: so really important that we're we're having that active supervision
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  Speaker 2: around the water. And you know, we know the fencing
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  Speaker 2: laws are quite relaxed around here, so we really need
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  Speaker 2: to take it into our own hands to make sure
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  Speaker 2: active supervision is happening and those gates are being.
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  Speaker 1: Maintained absolutely now. So the latest research has actually shown
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  Speaker 1: that forty one percent of drowning deaths among children under
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  Speaker 1: five in Australia occur in one year old toddlers. So
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  Speaker 1: that like, it's actually pretty scary to think because sometimes
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  Speaker 1: I know for my kids, they could hardly walk when
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  Speaker 1: they were one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really getting out in the world. So we're
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  Speaker 2: finding that if you're not restricting the access to the water,
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  Speaker 2: we're finding that fifty percent of those drownings are happening
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  Speaker 2: in backyard pools. So it's it's you, it's not you know,
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  Speaker 2: the it's not it's no one else's problem except for
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  Speaker 2: the backyard.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, and we've just got to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: we've got our eyes on our kids.
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  Speaker 2: All the time, all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Now, this is something that obviously you feel incredibly passionate
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  Speaker 1: about in your role and something that you go around
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  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, trying to educate people on I
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  Speaker 1: know as a parent, I feel really quite passionate about
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  Speaker 1: making sure that your kids are sort of water safe.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, we're talking about age groups as well,
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  Speaker 1: where sometimes it's hard to teach them to be safe,
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  Speaker 1: so it does fall on the responsibility of parents.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we deliver a program called the Water Safety Awareness Program.
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  Speaker 2: It's a Northern Territory government initiative. It's five free swimming lessons,
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  Speaker 2: with free swimming lessons after that once they've completed the program,
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  Speaker 2: and that's up until they turn five years old. So
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  Speaker 2: we're really urging parents to get onto that program because
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  Speaker 2: it's all about teaching the parents to teach a child.
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  Speaker 2: If we can teach the parents around CPR, so early
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  Speaker 2: intervention of CPR if something bad does happen, and if
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  Speaker 2: we can teach our children how to stay safe in
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  Speaker 2: the water, we're really making our children vigilant and we're
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  Speaker 2: teaching them how to stay safe into the future because
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  Speaker 2: we do have the highest drowning rates in Australia and
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  Speaker 2: we continue to have them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it. And I think you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's always a good time obviously to remind people to
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  Speaker 1: keep their young children safe around the pool. But as
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  Speaker 1: we head into summer as well, I know that Royal
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  Speaker 1: Life actually has a new keep Well, You've got to
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  Speaker 1: keep Watch campaign, don't you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is our key watch campaign where really it's
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  Speaker 2: timely at this point, as I said, it is getting hot.
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  Speaker 2: We are getting out in those waterways and into our
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  Speaker 2: backyard swimming pools and also into friends and families backyard
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  Speaker 2: swimming pool so, you know, thinking that someone else is
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  Speaker 2: watching the children in the pool when you're having that barbecue,
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  Speaker 2: think twice about that.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what? That's actually the scariest time I
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  Speaker 1: reckon is when you take your kids to a birthday
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  Speaker 1: party or when you go to somebody else's place and
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  Speaker 1: everybody sort of thinks that there's an adult supervising. But
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  Speaker 1: unless you've got your own eyes on your own child
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  Speaker 1: sort of can't leave it in somebody else's hands.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as I said, it's that unexpected factor. So a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the parents who have had this bad experience
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  Speaker 2: has had that it was so unexpected they didn't think
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  Speaker 2: it would happen to them. So we're urging territorians to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that it could happen to them, especially if
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  Speaker 2: you're having those those toddlers, you know, discovering the world, crawling,
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  Speaker 2: just beginning to walk, and you know, the water is
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  Speaker 2: a great place to be, but we need to make
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  Speaker 2: sure we know that can be dangerous at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Steve, I guess the other things for us to
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  Speaker 1: make sure we remember is we should be supervising. We
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  Speaker 1: need to be restricting our kids' access to water and
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  Speaker 1: making sure that we get our kids out there and
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  Speaker 1: learning to swim.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we with the restriction, we need to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that they can't climb the gate, the gate is maintained,
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  Speaker 2: and then you know, we're making sure that we're giving
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  Speaker 2: them active supervision and helping them out to learn how
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  Speaker 2: to swim in the water. As we've seen with the
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  Speaker 2: Water Safety Awareness Program since in intervention, we've cut drowning
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  Speaker 2: rates for children under five in half. So we've got
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  Speaker 2: the runs on the board. You can you can tell
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  Speaker 2: if you intervene early, you teach your parents, how to
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  Speaker 2: do CPR, how to supervilose your children, how to teach
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  Speaker 2: your children. It works.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it really does well. Steve Gazola from Royal Life
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  Speaker 1: here in the Northern Territory made is there somewhere where
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  Speaker 1: people can go for a little bit more information if
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  Speaker 1: they can.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, go to all our socials, Royal Life Saving Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: We've got a Facebook page, we got a website. All
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  Speaker 2: the information will be up on there and if you
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  Speaker 2: do want to access that program, we definitely urge you to. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Good idea that the swimming lessons one. That's a fantastic one,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the water safety awareness program, it's it's really great
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  Speaker 2: that the Northern Territory have really helped parents out here
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  Speaker 2: and you know, it's completely free. You can get swimming
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  Speaker 2: lessons up until the age of five and it's continual.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would highly recommend it. I just think it's
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  Speaker 1: so good to sort of get your kids, you know,
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  Speaker 1: in there and learning how to be safe in the water.
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  Speaker 1: And also for us parents too.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. It's not it's not only teaching the children,
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  Speaker 2: it's teaching the parents and that's that's what we have
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  Speaker 2: found through this keey Watch campaign. Is key Well, Steve.
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  Speaker 1: Always good to catch up with you mate, Keep up
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  Speaker 1: the good work. We'll talk to you soon.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you