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31 January 2005 - RoSPA Backs Childrens
Play in Northern Ireland
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The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and
theatre company Replay Productions are together producing a play entitled We
All Fall Down, which commences today (Monday 31 January 2005) for a 6 week
period.
The aim of the play is to reduce the number of children within
Northern Ireland, who attend hospital with injuries arising from falls in the
home.
Around 5,000 children in Northern Ireland attend hospital each
year, with almost 700 having to be admitted owing to falls. There
are many more thousands who are either given first aid or attend their own G.P.
The highest risk group of aged 3 to 6 year olds are the children
being targeted in the play. It is hoped both parents and teachers
attending with the children will benefit also.
The play will be taken to playgroups, mother and toddler groups
and primary schools from today (Monday) with more than 110 performances being
given.
It is hoped that this play will prove to have as good an impact
as the play RoSPA and Replay produced 2 years ago, which highlighted accidental
poisonings amongst children and achieved a 67% improvement in understanding for
prevention of poisonings with 20% of the audience saying they had changed the
way in which they stored their poisons.
Janice Bisp, RoSPA Home Safety Manager for Northern Ireland
said:
“The play aims to raise awareness, improve knowledge and
change behaviour. It’s a fun-filled half-hour set in a living room and looking
at the life of a pregnant mother with three young children and a baby.
"It deals with some of the most common causes of falls,
including unguarded stairs and windows, highchairs, bouncy chairs left high up,
poor awareness and lack of supervision. We hope it will be as successful as
previous plays in preventing accidents.”
The funding for the play has come from Northern Ireland's
Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and The Department of
Education.
Performances are as follows:
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Ballymagee Primary, Bangor, on Monday 31 January.
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Elmgrove Primary, Belfast, on Tuesday 1 February.
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Harmony Hill Primary, Lisburn, on Wednesday and Thursday 2 & 3
February.
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Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick, on Friday 4 February.
Janice Bisp can be contacted on 02890 501 160 for details
of other performances.
Article by Alexandra Johnston
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