No fooling when it comes to swimming pool safety

POOL safety advocates are hoping a new fun campaign will help raise awareness around vital pool safety, with close to half of all drowning deaths in children under five occurring in swimming pools.

Kids Alive, the Red Cross and Geelong Poolwerx have partnered for an April Pools Day safety campaign, running from tomorrow.

Greg Bailey from Poolwerx Geelong South said research by Poolwerx found that 75 per cent of parents admitted they were not confident they had the CPR skills to save a life if a child came into trouble in a backyard pool.

“Many parents said they were unaware of where to get CPR training and thought it was too expensive,” Mr Bailey said.

Founder of Kids Alive and April Pools Day advocate Laurie Lawrence said anything that would help reduce drowning statistics and improve pool safety was worth getting behind.

“Last year drowning deaths in children under five increased by 32 per cent and we all have a role to play to help reduce this tragic statistic,” Mr Lawrence said.

“April Pools Day speaks to our fifth important step to reduce the risk of preschool drowning and that is ‘Learn how to resuscitate’.”

Australian Red Cross first aid trainer Janie McCullagh said almost 30 per cent of parents surveyed by Poolwerx believed they did not need to obtain CPR training as their partner knew how to perform CPR.

“Children can get into trouble in the water anywhere and at any time and that’s why it’s so important for all parents to be confident that they could perform CPR in an emergency,” she said.

“The Australian Red Cross online CPR training program gives people the opportunity to update their knowledge of CPR and they can then pay to complete a short practical course to obtain their full CPR certificate.”

Mr Bailey said pool owners wishing to complete the free online CPR course could visit their Poolwerx store anytime from April 3 during the campaign.