The Effectiveness of Drowning Prevention Strategies

The circumstances surrounding drownings are multiple and varied and so too are the strategies recommended to prevent them. Successful drowning prevention programs must address the age and developmental stage of the potential victim as well as the specific scenarios under which the drownings occur. Drowning prevention strategies include primary prevention, which is preventing the drowning altogether, and secondary prevention, which is improving the outcome should a drowning occur. They also include both passive approaches, which require no action or only a one time action, and active strategies, which require repeated action.