Location: Tudor Grange Academy, Solihull
Event: Health Event Stand
Awareness Topics: Safe Night Out
Our Development Officer Vickki was invited to hold an awareness stand focusing on alcohol awareness and ways to stay safe during a night out. This was our first health event stand at Tudor Grange Academy, following on from several successful educational sessions last year. Many students came along to take some of the information we were offering, and to try the various activities on the stand.
There were a lot of conversations surrounding the topic of drink spiking and some students shared their personal experiences of this. Students were reminded of the dangers but also what to do if they think a friend or themselves may have been spiked. We were also handing out free Spikey’s during the event.
The ATM activity, where students are encouraged to try to withdraw money from a cashpoint whilst wearing alcohol impairment goggles, was a popular task. We were able to discuss the safety implications of using ATM’s late at night and how to prevent these vulnerabilities.
An example of this presented itself when one student had left her handbag on the side of the machine whilst trying to withdraw cash. We passed her bag to her friend to look after, and waited to see how long it would take the student to notice it had gone. She had not noticed until a few moments later when completing her transaction. We reminded the students that vision, especially side (peripheral) vision, can be affected by alcohol as well as hearing.
The environmental dangers of a night out were also highlighted and the importance of wearing shoes whilst walking home due to broken glass on the pavements. We reminded students that alcohol can numb pain so they may not notice an injury until the day after, which may cause further complications.
Students were also informed about the changes in safe unit guidelines and asked them to complete the units challenge activity. They were surprised by the small amount a unit of alcohol can be. The pupils saw the effect alcohol can have on the organs through our visual aids of healthy and diseased organs that include kidneys, liver and heart.