Life Saving Victoria calls for industry-wide action to address violence in aquatic facilities

Growing instances of violence at aquatic and recreation facilities has prompted Life Saving Victoria (LSV) to undertake a comprehensive Risk Treatment Plan to address this concern.

The action follows coverage of several high-profile incidents in mainstream and social media over recent months and national data from Royal Life Saving Australia which identified over 2,000 acts of violence at aquatic and recreation facilities across the country each year. These incidents range from verbal aggression to physical altercations, posing a growing threat to the safety and wellbeing of staff and patrons.

As a result of the troubling trend, LSV has, in partnership with key organisations and facility representatives from across the Victorian industry, set out to understand the root causes of these incidents, assess current treatment activities and identify practical, high-impact interventions that can reduce the likelihood and consequence of violence at facilities.

This collaborative review has resulted in a prioritised suite of risk treatment actions, which include improved incident reporting/benchmarking, staff conflict management training, stronger planning and communication protocols and improved advocacy activities.

Risk treatment actions have been captured under four headings:

• Training, professional development and events

• Engagement and advocacy

• Resources and information

• Technology/other

Call to Action
Calling on the broader aquatic industry to join LSV in prioritising this issue, LSV General Manager - Aquatic Capability, Andy Dennis explained “we are seeking a collaboration approach from industry, including sharing resources, knowledge and success stories, as well as contributing to the develop of future treatment actions.

“It’s critical that we don’t re-invent the wheel across Victoria’s 300 public pools (but) by sharing resources and co-contributing to high impact actions, we can most effectively address this growing challenge across the industry.”

A draft Risk Treatment Plan (Executive Summary) from LSV and a Partner/Contributor Form can be viewed by clicking on the links below.

The Form is intended to capture information on i) existing resources that organisations would be willing to share, and/or ii) articulate where organisations are willing to co-contribute financially or through staff support, to one or more of the identified priority treatment actions.

Click here to view the Risk Treatment Plan.

Click here to view the Partner/Contributor Form.