As summer approaches, ensuring children's safety around water is a top priority. Through collaborations with local health and community agencies, Intermountain Health is donating life jackets to help people enjoy the water and be safe. This year, over 1,000 life jackets will be provided to life jacket loaner stations and recreation centers.
Lance Bradshaw, director of HR Workforce Transformation at Intermountain, says he and his wife Danielle of Draper, Utah, wish a life jacket loaner station would have been an option for them. They had a freak accident in the summer of 2022 at Blackridge Reservoir near Herriman, Utah.
Danielle, a good swimmer, was on a raft with her daughters, ages 2 and 5, when they flipped over while trying to retrieve some garbage. Danielle says she struggled to stay afloat while keeping her babies above water.
Bystanders saw them thrashing in the water and heard her calls for help, getting the two girls to the shore. Danielle’s son pulled her to safety, but she was in cardiac arrest. An off-duty police officer jumped into action and quickly performed CPR, saving her life.
“There’s no way to repay those who didn’t hesitate to step-in and save us,” said Danielle, who spent one night in the hospital before going back home to her husband and eight kids. “I realize now it’s always better to be safe and cautious than to be sorry.”
"The reality is you always want to be prepared for whatever might happen,” said Lance.” Everyone should get in the habit of wearing a life jacket, even in shallow water."
Michelle Jamison, Intermountain Community Health program manager, says it’s important to remember that accidents can happen to anyone. “The reality is that 88% of child drownings occur with an adult present, according to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA),” she said. “Remember to do your part by always supervising children near water, wearing a life jacket, and learning CPR and emergency response.”
Safety and injury prevention
Intermountain follows injury prevention strategies based on state and national data that indicate 70% of drownings occur in late spring and summer. Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death in children ages one to four years, and the second leading cause for children 14 years and under.
The location where most drownings occur varies by state and drives Intermountain Health’s injury prevention approaches and collaborations.
In Nevada and Colorado, swimming pools are the leading cause of drowning deaths. Community Health is teaming with YMCA of Southern Nevada to distribute life-saving education and donating equipment to set up Life Jacket Loaner Stations for patrons. Likewise, in Grand Junction, Colorado, a new recreation center is using Intermountain donated life jackets to set up a Loaner Station, which will be named after St. Mary’s Regional Hospital.
In Utah and Montana, large bodies of water are the leading culprit, and Idaho is particularly at-risk for drowning in canals. The Utah team has established Life Jacket Loaner Stations at over 20 state parks and marinas and also at urban recreation centers that serve low-income and diverse communities who have higher incidence of drowning.
In other areas we serve, our local teams have received life jackets and are leveraging their local relationships to jump start similar collaborations.
Here to save lives
The Intermountain Community Health Children’s Health team is dedicated to injury prevention through education, public messaging, and providing safety equipment, with programs that benefit the community enterprise wide.
“Children’s health has been identified as a sustaining health need in all our communities, because we know what happens to us in our childhoods has lifelong impact on our health and ability to unleash our joy and potential,” said Stephanie Stokes, Intermountain Community Health manager. When Intermountain conducts Community Health Needs Assessments, it also examines health needs specific to children, which may not be identified in the health data for the general population.
“We know from the data that injuries are the leading cause of childhood death, but many of those deaths can be prevented,” added Stephanie. “Our team responds to these health priorities by investing in evidence-based practices and working with communities to prevent and educate more people, increasing our impact and ability to save lives.”
Get involved
Intermountain supports programs that benefit the community across our enterprise. We are looking for collaborative organizations to distribute education and resources related to child safety and injury prevention. Reach out to the Community Health Children’s Health team at (801) 662-6583 or email pchchildsafety@imail.org.
If you are interested in learning more, visit the Children’s Health wellness and prevention page.