EVERYDAY Interactive Discussion in Schools – Recasting a Wheelchair Presenter Program with an Evidence-Based Approach to Injury Prevention

There remains a strong interest in wheelchair users presenting injury prevention messages to school students. To date there has not been good evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of this in changing behaviours of young people. This paper reports on the development of an evidence-based approach in revamping a wheelchair presenter program to address risk-taking and injury prevention for school students aged 12-14 years.

The Spinesafe Education Program in NSW began a spinal injury awareness and prevention program in 1982 with wheelchair presenters attending schools across NSW. The program remained very popular with students and teachers for over twenty years. However in 1998 an evaluation of the program against the evidence for preventing injuries in young people indicated changes were needed for the program to truly impact on risk-taking behaviours. The findings indicated that for effective delivery the program needed to:

• Be linked to the school curriculum
• Use a variety of teaching and learning strategies
• Be able to be delivered by teachers
• Not be delivered as a stand-alone session.

By partnering with the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and the NSW Department of Education (DET) an innovative new program was developed as part of the Youthsafe program. A feasibility study was conducted which included piloting the session in 10 metropolitan schools.

The new ?EVERYDAY? interactive session can be delivered by either Youthsafe presenters or teachers. The ?EVERYDAY? session incorporates a range of teaching and learning strategies and is part of a comprehensive RTA Stage 4 road safety resource package available to NSW secondary schools.