Injury Prevention DVD Earns International Award
An injury prevention DVD that helps Nova Scotia teenagers understand the consequences of risk has won a FREDDIE award - a prize recognizing excellence in international health and medical media productions.
The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) DVD, produced by CBC Television, takes teenagers on a life-like and sometimes explicit journey from the scene of a mock car crash, through the emergency department and intensive care unit, and into rehabilitation. The DVD ends with a series of testimonials from injury survivors and people affected by injury.
Other FREDDIE winners included productions from ABC News, the Discovery Channel, HBO and CNN.
The Department of Health Promotion and Protection trains the majority of facilitators across the province who go into classrooms with the DVD and interactive exercises to help teenagers understand the ramifications of risk and serious injury.
"We're very pleased that the P.A.R.T.Y. DVD has been recognized with this international award," said Barry Barnet, Minster of Health Promotion and Protection. "The DVD-based version of P.A.R.T.Y. reached 33 high schools and almost 4,000 students across Nova Scotia this past school year, and we hope to reach many more this school year."
"CBC Television - especially the crew from Street Cents - should be proud of their work in helping us create a first-class educational resource. I also want to thank all the police, paramedics, nurses, doctors and others, including health professions students, who have been trained as P.A.R.T.Y. facilitators and are bringing this valuable resource to high school students in their communities," said Mr. Barnet.
P.A.R.T.Y. was first created by staff from Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Science Centre as a hospital-based initiative. The Department of Health's emergency health services division took the lead in creating the DVD-based version that allows the resource to come directly to high schools in French and English. The Department of Health Promotion and Protection is now coordinating P.A.R.T.Y. in Nova Scotia.
The DVD is just half of the P.A.R.T.Y. experience. High school students also work through a series of interactive exercises created by faculty and students from the Dalhousie University School of Health and Human Performance, as well as the Department of Education.
Support and funding for P.A.R.T.Y. has come from Nova Scotia Health Promotion and Protection, the CBC, Emergency Health Services, the Be Smart Be Safe campaign from the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Nova Scotia's Road Safety Advisory Committee, the Nova Scotia Office of Acadian Affairs, the Department of Education, the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island, Emergency Medical Care, Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, the R.C.M.P. and Dalhousie University and Canadian Heritage. P.A.R.T.Y. is now a licensed resource of SMARTRISK, a national not for profit injury prevention organization. More info on SMARTRISK can be found at www.smartrisk.ca .
For a complete list of FREDDIE winners see the website at