A community's response to childhood drownings. A model for accident prevention.

The prevention of drowning or any other accidental injury depends primarily on changing the behavior patterns of the families of the children at risk. Many community organizations and individual citizens must be recruited to help convince the public of the risks of young children drowning in backyard pools and to propose appropriate prevention measures. Legally mandated remedies may be necessary and may take years to show any significant effect. Because of the constantly changing population of parents of young children and the high risk of drowning for small children in Arizona, the educational programs must be repeated year after year.