A group of Ballarat teens have had a reality check about taking risks and their own mortality during a hard-hitting program raising awareness of the impact of traumatic injury.
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With trauma responsible for two thirds of deaths in the 15-24 age group, the Alfred Hospital's Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY) program aims to reduce the number of injuries in young people by bringing together trauma experts, ambulance officers, police and an injury survivor to challenge year 11 students to think about the consequences of their actions.
A mini-emergency department and intensive care room were erected inside the Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts with students from secondary colleges across Ballarat taking turns to step in to the roles of doctors and nurses treating trauma victims.
Participants also learned first aid skills including CPR, examined prosthetic limbs and learned what life is like for accident victims undergoing rehabilitation, and how their lives have changed.
Perhaps the most confronting though was the ED and ICU workshop and the words of Alfred Hospital emergency department nursing unit manager Paul Liston, who explained what happens to trauma patients and how families cope, or not.
"You're lying in bed. You have no idea what's going on. Your mum isn't getting paid because she's sitting by your bedside, siblings are being cared for by relatives, dad's at work," he told students from Woodman's Hill, Ballarat High and Mount Clear College who took part in the program on Wednesday.
"The reality is you may survive, you may not, but if you do survive you may have long term disabilities.
"We see families break down over this, we see families fight, get divorced and fall apart."
He said probably 90 per cent of young people who came through the ICU had "done something stupid to get themselves in to this position".
He also spoke about death after trauma.
When a young person dies, I burst in to tears after walking out. The family are howling behind me, I walk out and the tears come out of my eyes. Every patient affects you differently.
- Paul Liston
"Over 20 years of nursing I've lost count of the number of kids your age we've had to take off life support, telling family there is nothing we can do. The family come in, are close, we disconnect the ventilator and your family sits and watches you take your last breath ... this is reality."
Mr Liston said the reality-check gave teens some understanding of the impact their decisions can have not just on them, but on their family, mates and the wider community.
It also affects the hospital staff.
"When a young person dies, I burst in to tears after walking out. The family are howling behind me, I walk out and the tears come out of my eyes. Every patient affects you differently."
It was the PARTY program's first visit to Ballarat. As a region, the Grampians has the second highest incidence of patient hospitalisation for major trauma in Victoria.
Brent Murphy from Woodmans Hill Secondary College said the experience would change his actions.
"It's taught me to think twice before I do things, how it can affect my family and mates and how I have to look after my mates as well when I'm out. It has affected me seeing how simple accidents can change your life long and short term."
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