Grade 10 students of YRHS had a dramatic look at the consequences of bad decisions at Yorkton Regional Health Centre last week.
The PARTY Program (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth) is an all-day injury awareness and prevention seminar that targets teens at an age when they start to hit the roads.
The message is not just about drinking and driving, but all risky behavior that can lead to traumatic results.
On Wednesday morning, the students endured presentations by the RCMP and EMS which simulated a car wreck and the response of emergency personnel. They then viewed a slideshow depicting actual accident victims, followed by a tour of the emergency room and morgue by ER nurse Karen Tratch..
The day's content is graphic and emotional.
"One of the kids said to me last time, 'My goodness, you didn't censor that!' And I said, 'But if you were in an accident, this wouldn't be censored,'" said Janet Lemaire, coordinator of the program.
"On TV and in action films and whatnot, I think kids don't get the idea of reality, because their favorite actor might have gotten killed or blown up or mutilated in some way, and all the sudden they're on the front cover of a magazine the next week. And on these programs like Destroyed in Seconds, they say 'Nobody was killed,' but what were the injuries, and what was the process of recovery? Or were they able to recover?
"Here the kids get a non-censored version from the actual professionals who have to go pick up the pieces after an accident."
The afternoon was headlined by a talk from a surviving family member of an accident victim.
Most students coming out of a PARTY seminar agree that the program is effective - which might be an understatement. One of the day's challenges is managing all of the teenagers who faint during the presentations.
"The last one was my first one, and we had seven," said Lemaire. "The record is 13."
That problem was kept under control this year by feeding the group a snack at the start of the day.
But the students had another reminder of how real the program's topics are.
The morning's second ER tour, which normally features emergency personnel working on a simulated accident victim, was sidelined by the arrival of an actual trauma case.
It was one more incident to bring the day's unrelenting message closer to home.
"I think it has a big impact on the kids," said Lemaire.
