Out with flu. Back next week!

1. Petition to the United Nations: Add Drowning to Millennium Development Goal #4, Reduce Childhood Mortality.

542 signatures from a truly staggering 52 countries signed the petition. (countries listed below) I’ll be closing the petition on May 15 and submitting the signatures to the International Life Saving Federation to aid them in their diplomatic efforts with the U.N. Can you help me get at least 1,000 signatures by May 15? Please post the link on your Facebook page or share via e-mail – and ask people to pass it on!

The low number of signatures probably reflects our general reticence in the drowning prevention community to leverage social media. There was a surge in countries where effort to publicize the petition via Facebook or e-mail took place, namely Portugal and the U.S. I do think we deserve a high-five over the incredible breadth of countries that responded though – we heard from 6 of the 7 continents!

2. International Water Safety Day. Scheduled for May 15. Anthony Erwin has signed on as spokesperson, Open Water Source and USA Swimming are among the organizations that are participating. Check out the web-site to see what is going on and what you can do to participate.

3. International Open Water Safety Guidelines. In a very short time we had confirmation that the following organizations have adopted the guidelines (in order of confirmation): Seattle Children’s Hospital, State of Washington (US), NDPA, STA, IFSTA, Aquatic Educations, Kenya Life Saving Foundation, Netherlands (swim teacher manuals), Safely Living web-site, Switzerland SLG, The Life Saving Foundation (Ireland), Joshua Collingsworth Foundation, Water Safe Auckland, New Zealand Water Safety Code, SOBRASA, Royal Life Saving Society Australia, Swimming Pool Safety Company.

Several other major organizations are in the process of walking the guidelines through the proper channels and expect to adopt and promote them. I’ll be contacting many more organizations directly over the next 3 months encouraging them to adopt the guidelines, but if you are interested or have already adopted them, please contact me at rebeccalioness@gmail.com . The guidelines are listed at the bottom of this blog.

4. I’ll end by launching a new initiative. I interviewed Mario Vittone last night. (I know, I love my work! I’ll post the interview next week.) Mario has written THE only article on drowning prevention ever to have gone viral. It has been translated into 14 languages and is constantly being reprinted. If you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend it. Click here for the link. Mario wrote the article when he realized that even trained open water rescue professionals don’t always know what drowning looks like, despite the seminal work of Dr. Francesco Pia 40 years ago on the subject. Staggeringly enough, this knowledge has still not been incorporated into all life saving and open water rescue training curriculums. Your assignment? Read Mario’s article. And then share it with our friends and family and especially with your curriculum director if you work in any area of drowning prevention and life saving. The article went viral in the first place because of the powerful mom network, not because of the drowning prevention community. Time to get on board and see if we can harness our resources as effectively!

Petition Signatures

1. U.S.
2. South Africa
3. U.K.
4. Australia
5. Jamaica
6. Israel
7. Brazil
8. Canada
9. New Zealand
10. Serbia
11. Macedonia
12. Sweden
13. Spain
14. Colombia
15. Mexico
16. Ireland
17. Bosnia and Herzegovina
18. India
19. Philippines
20. Greece
21. Bangladesh
22. Portugal
23. Uganda
24. Cameroon
25. Saudi Arabia
26. Panama
27. Argentina
28. Switzerland
29. Finland
30. Qatar
31. Sri Lanka
32. Fiji
33. United Arab Emirates
34. Jersey
35. Norway
36. Kenya
37. United Republic of Tanzania
38. Paraguay
39. Guam
40. Netherlands
41. Thailand
42. Aruba
43. Nepal
44. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
45. Malaysia
46. Ghana
47. Singapore
48. Benin
49. Viet Nam
50. Armed Forces Pacific – U.S.
51. Plurinational State of Bolivia
52. Maldives

International Open Water Safety Guidelines

Care of Self
Learn swimming and water survival skills.
Always swim with others.
Obey all safety signs and warning flags.
Never go in the water after drinking alcohol.
Know how and when to use a life jacket.
Swim in areas with a lifeguard.
Know the weather and water conditions before getting in the water.
Always enter shallow and unknown water feet first. 

Care of Others
Help and encourage others, especially children, to learn swimming and water safety survival skills.
Swim in areas with lifeguards.
Set water safety rules.
Always provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water.
Know how and when to use a life jacket, especially with children and weak swimmers.
Learn first aid and CPR.
Learn safe ways of rescuing others without putting yourself in danger.
Obey all safety signs and warning flags.

To kick off the series, it’s only my dulcet tones you’ll be hearing, talking about my vision of how we are going to end drowning. Click here to watch the video. I would ask you not judge me based on this first video, it’s fairly long and I’m really much more animated when I’m not just talking to the green light on my computer. (Yes, I have just betrayed my age as to roughly comparable to when dinosaurs roamed the earth.)

I’ll still be posting the occasional written blog, but I’m excited about highlighting the work of others. I’d love to know whether the new format has your ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’, so please tweet your opinion at RebeccaSaveKids or drop me a line at rebeccalioness@gmail.com.

How many people in the drowning prevention field does it take to change a lightbulb?

Ten.

One to change it and the other nine to complain how much better the old lightbulb was.

Ouch. It would be really funny if it weren’t so true. The good news is that I see a lot of lightbulb changers out there working to end drowning every single day by exploring new options, being open to new ideas, and being willing to discard what isn’t working. The bad news is that I also see a lot of people that are really happy with the status quo, but the status quo has resulted in only glacial progress when you look at the statistics.

The new take on the old lightbulb joke has more than a grain of truth to it. Apparently 10% of the population is open to change, 10% will never change, and the other 80% just need to be convinced they want, and need, to change.

Which one are you? Will you help me change the lightbulb?

We don’t get no respect.

One of the most common themes I hear from aquatics professionals is, ‘Why don’t people realize this is important? Why don’t they understand?’.

The next most common theme is ‘should we or shouldn’t we adopt standards, issue licenses, and have regulations?’.

Legitimate questions with legitimate concerns about why our work is not recognized appropriately and what adding formality to an industry really means in terms of cost, bureaucracy and competitive advantage.

The two issues are intrinsically related. If you don’t treat yourself with respect, no one else will treat you with respect. So, how do we treat ourselves with respect?

We establish standards of conduct, training, and production quality and develop appropriate testing and licensing for professionals in aquatics-related fields (pools/spas, water parks, lifeguards, swim instructors, commercial products, etc), and then enforce those standards, including censure or penalties for non-compliance.

If you think about it, it’s fairly astonishing that we have not been forced to comply more with consistent standards. Would you allow your child to attend a school where the teachers had no formal training, no knowledge of first aid/CPR and no background check? Do you really want the wiring and plumbing in your house done by someone who may not have had formal training or know what is the best current practice?

I’m not suggesting we are the Wild West with charlatans and con men running around, but as awareness increases about the risk of drowning or a few motivated people get the ear of a cooperative member of Congress, you can be certain that the government will turn it’s eye to the neglected aquatics industry and begin to impose well-meaning but perhaps unrealistic standards, which will result in cutting out potential markets, lowering profitability, and damaging the industry’s reputation regarding professional standards and ethics.

Lawyers, doctors, electricians, plumbers – they all have to reach basic industry standards that they developed, and if they flout those standards they are disbarred or have their license revoked. What does that give those industries? A whole lot more freedom to decide for themselves what ‘reasonable’ behavior and standards make professional, market and ethical sense. Do it yourself, or someone will do it for you.

The irony is that anyone who works with or around water understands that if you don’t respect the water you will never come out on the good side of any encounter. Time to start showing ourselves some respect and organize industries with sensible professional standards and a mechanism for enforcing those standards.

Below are the Open Water Drowning Prevention Key Messages developed by an International Task Force and presented at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention in Vietnam last May. I strongly suggest that all of us working in the drowning prevention field adopt these messages, verbatim, in our communication efforts.

Care of Self
Learn swimming and water survival skills.
Always swim with others.
Obey all safety signs and warning flags.
Never go in the water after drinking alcohol.
Know how and when to use a life jacket.
Swim in areas with a lifeguard.
Know the weather and water conditions before getting in the water.
Always enter shallow and unknown water feet first.

Care of Others
Help and encourage others, especially children, to learn swimming and water safety survival skills.
Swim in areas with lifeguards.
Set water safety rules.
Always provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water.
Know how and when to use a life jacket, especially with children and weak swimmers.
Learn first aid and CPR.
Learn safe ways of rescuing others without putting yourself in danger.
Obey all safety signs and warning flags.

I will make one observation. Safety signs and warning flags – there is no consistent global format or system. We can’t change that overnight, but we need to start working towards a predictable and consistent system in terms of what flags mean, where signs are posted, what is included in the warnings. If we make the public guess every time they read a sign, they won’t read the sign. Sounds like we need another International Task Force to address the signage/warning flag issue – and then agreement that we will all work to move our countries to the new system.

Who’s on board with adopting the Key Tasks and moving to more consistency? Let me know so we can add your name to the list.

What are the best water toys? Well, I’m old, boring and no fun at all, so instead of giving you my opinion, I went right to the source. Here’s what my kids consider ‘must have’ water/beach toys:

Waboba: Fabric balls that bounce on the water, like a skipping stone, doesn’t sink and easy to throw. For $10 it will keep your kids happy and having fun in the water for hours, not to mention improve physical coordination and hand-eye contact. Better for slightly older kids (10 and up) since they could provide a bit of a thump to the younger, less coordinated ones. And yes, older brothers do try to bounce them over younger sister’s heads, not always successfully.

Splash Bombs: The original name (and the best construction) are the Splash Bombs. You can find knock-off splash balls anywhere now, just google ‘splash bomb’. About $1 a ball. The size of a tennis ball (or junior football), they are super-soft neoprene balls with a soft inside that soak up the water. Basically a re-usable water balloon. Easy to throw, easier for little hands to catch, virtually impossible to hurt anyone. They never leave my swim bag and I have around 40 in a basket in my basement for indoor wars to burn off steam. Great for all ages, easy for little hands to grasp, but too big to swallow.

Torpedoes: Great for kids who are learning to dive and swim under water. Similar to weighted rings in terms of skill-building but a little more fun since they are unpredictable in their path. I prefer the smaller ones (around 4 inches long) since the big ones (around 10 inches long) can cause damage when kids inevitably launch them airborne. About $9 each.

SwimFin: Looks like a shark or dolphin fin, perfect for non-swimmers or less confident swimmers if the pool is a bit out of their depth, and I love, love, love the fact that it keeps arms and legs free to play and practice proper swimming strokes. I wouldn’t use anything but CoastGuard approved life jackets in open water, but for a pool – it’s perfect! More expensive at around $40 each, but will last through several kids and worth every penny.

Let’s play!!!

What do I believe in? Kids. The joyful and soothing powers of water. Positive change.

So, I won’t be posting my usual Wednesday blog next week, and I’m intentionally posting this early to make a point. I’m spending the week with my kids on a beach and am having a no-electronics vacation.

Why? Because I love just hanging with my kids. Because I’ll be watching my kids whenever we are in the ocean or the pool, no distractions. Because a week staring at, swimming in, and playing in the water knocks about 10 years off my face and adds 10 years to my life. It allows me to step back from the day-to-day and really see the big picture. It rejuvenates me so I am ready to keep pushing for positive and big changes in how we end drowning.

I’ll be back posting on my regular Wednesday schedule on April 4 – relaxed and excited to change how the whole world thinks about water!

How do we change behavior? We change intrinsic motivation, how someone acts even if no one else is around.

How do we change intrinsic motivation? Tell people what to do. Motivate people to do the right thing. Make it easy to do the right thing.

How do we make it easy? Be Directive. Be Descriptive. Use 3 words.

What 3 words do we use? Teach. Watch. Protect. ™

How will 3 words work? They get people’s attention, it’s the most people can remember, and you can expand on the message once you have their attention. Use the Key Tasks developed by the International Task Force of the International Life Saving Federation to expand on the meanings of Teach. Watch. Protect. ™

Teach.
Learn swimming and water survival skills.
Never go in the water after drinking alcohol.
Know the weather and water conditions before getting in the water.
Always enter shallow and unknown water feet first.
Help and encourage others, especially children, to learn swimming and water safety survival skills.

Watch.
Always swim with others.
Swim in areas with a lifeguard.
Always provide close and constant attention to children you are supervising in or near water.

Protect.
Obey all safety signs and warning flags.
Know how and when to use a life jacket, for yourself and especially with children and weak swimmers.
Set water safety rules.
Learn first aid and CPR.
Learn safe ways of rescuing others without putting yourself in danger.

Can I use these words in my campaign?

Yes, absolutely! Teach. Watch. Protect. ™ was created by experts in marketing to use exclusively for drowning prevention initiatives. If your goal is water safety/drowning prevention just send me an e-mail at rebeccalioness@gmail.com and I’ll give you permission to use them on your web-site, in your communication materials, in your teaching, on your Facebook page, or even using smoke signals if it means we keep one more child safer around the water.

If you want more information on how to market drowning prevention effectively, please check out my presentation on ScribD or send me an e-mail and request the Word document.

The short version is that we need to switch our focus from Rules to Joy.

I have put the full text of my speech, ‘Marketing Drowning Prevention Effectively’ on ScribD. If you prefer a copy in word or a copy of the slides, please e-mail me at rebeccalioness@gmail.com.

This speech was intended for the NDPA symposium in San Diego last week. My sincere apologies to Kim Burgess and the NDPA for my last minute cancellation to speak due to a family issue, and many thanks to Dr. Julie Gilchrist of the CDC for stepping up with a wonderful presentation to fill the slot!