WS WC 10 Develop Tools to Assess Drowning Risk for Individuals with Disabilities
Develop and implement standardized measures to assess the drowning risk of all persons with disabilities (e.g., epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder, and other disabilities).
Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices
Evidence level: Medium
Implementation levels: National
Rationale:
There is a need for Surveillance data that quantifies the drowning risk of all IwD’s, not just those with epilepsy or autism. Multiple articles were discovered about the higher drowning prevalence of those with autism spectrum disorder, and one or two articles mentioned seizure disorder or epilepsy as a high risk group. One article mentioned (without supporting data) that those with intellectual/developmental disorders were high risk for drowning, but in general, there is no prevalence data that was found about people with disabilities in general having a high or low risk. Collection of data, during drowning incidents, should include disability status.
Anticipated Impact:
Originally a noted as a Gap.
Evidence Sources:
Denny, S. A., Quan, L., Gilchrist, J., McCallin, T., Shenoi, R., Yusuf, S., ... & Hoffman, B. (2021). Prevention of drowning. Pediatrics, 148(2). https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/148/2/e2021052227/179784/Prevention-of-Drowning?autologincheck=redirected
High Risk Populations Addressed:
The population whose risk of drowning decreases the most with the implementation of this recommendation is:
- Individuals with disabilities
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- Those who report on drowning incidences complete the fields related to disabilities sufficiently so that information is gained about the circumstances surrounding the incident
- Data and surveillance tools include fields for a range of disabilities
Indicators of intermediate impact:
Indicators of initial impact: