Raising awareness: Free swim lessons by UMass Chan med students held at YMCA for teens

WORCESTER - Drownings in Worcester in recent years have increased the need for swimming lessons.

In an effort to prevent more accidents, graduate and medical students from UMass Chan Medical School are helping teenagers become more comfortable in the water.

Free two-hour sessions, at the YMCA swimming pool on Main Street, focus on water safety and training.

After learning about the bimodal distribution with swim injuries, a medical student approached Dr. Kaitlyn Wong and Dr. Alycia Valente of UMass Memorial Health with interest in expanding some injury-prevention programs at the hospital.

“Especially in an inner-city, underserved population, (teenagers) are less likely to be exposed to swimming, swim education and the risks that come with the pool and natural bodies of water,” Wong said. “Through this one student’s passion interest, we’ve developed this program this last year.”

The graduate and medical students are all volunteers and the lessons are open to teenagers 13 and older. There is no residency requirement to participate.

In the summer of 2021, Worcester Police Officer Enmanuel "Manny" Familia drowned while attempting to rescue three teens who were struggling to stay above water at Green Hill Pond. The teen he attempted to save also drowned. Second-year medical student Kendall Lavin-Parsons, who is also a leader in this program, said this event resonated with her and her peers.

The YMCA and medical school were brought together by the foundation established in memory of Familia.

“When someone is drowning and you go out to save them, they tend to drag you down with them,” Lavin-Parsons said. “I think (the Familia drowning) brought awareness to it.”

Lavin-Parsons said her and her peers learned how to swim when they were younger, so discovering there is a large population of teenagers and adults who did not know how to swim was surprising.

“Learning that swim lessons aren’t a universal thing, especially for a lot of refugee populations  that have come to Worcester and that there are so many public bodies of water here, really brought on the initiative,” Lavin-Parsons said.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis, disparities in deaths among racial groups have worsened with Black children between 10 and 14 being 3.6 times more likely to drown in pools than white children. Disparities are also present in most age groups for Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic and Indigenous and Alaska Native children. Worcester has a 23% Hispanic, 11% Black and 7% Asian population.

Aside from teaching swim lessons, the UMass Chan students also teach the kids endurance and treading water for safety purposes. Lessons out of the water are equally important, Lavin-Parsons said.

“The 'reach, throw, don’t go' program teaches kids how to put on a life vest in and out of the water and learn to not just dive in immediately when your friend is drowning, calling 911, hands-only CPR and looking for a lifeguard,” Lavin-Parsons said. “We’re also doing a public safety arm of our program in fixing signs and making them in other languages so everyone knows water conditions are not safe.”

The program’s goal is to prevent drowning of any age in any circumstance. It runs for another two weeks and is held at the Central Community Branch YMCA at 766 Main St. Wong said there are plans to restart the program in the fall.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: aquatic safety umass med