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Camp Safety Checklist

Camp Safety Checklist

Every year countless youth across the nation take their first adventures away from home at an overnight summer camp. For many, camp represents the first time being away from their parents’ overseeing eyes. Many of us grew up attending summer camps and engaging in activities from harmless and innocent “Hello muddah, hello faddah” cheers to more aggressive and dangerous competitions and events. We likely cherish these memories and want to allow our children to experience the same excitement and independence. I commend that desire and encourage those experiences, but, as with everything we allow for our children, the benefits of summer camp cannot be experienced without acceptance of some level of risk of harm or injury. We wouldn’t allow our children to engage in any activity without taking every step possible to ensure that the activity was as safe as possible. As with anything, there are steps we can and should take to better protect our children from injury, harm, and unnecessary suffering and heartache while they’re away at camp.

In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement called “Creating Healthy Camp Experiences.” The statement provided “recommendations for health appraisal and preparation of young people before participation in day or resident camps and to guide health and safety practices for children at camp.” The information was intended not just for parents but for primary health care providers as well as camp administrators and health center staff. Its applicability was both general (applicable to all situations) and specific (appropriate under special conditions). The policy statement was reviewed and was supported by the American Camp Association.

The AAP offers both a checklist for parents preparing their children for camp, and a checklist for camp administrators preparing their camp for children:

Preparing the Camper

  1. Assess the child’s interests, skills, and overall physical, mental, and emotional well-being and ability to effectively participate in a particular camp setting. Camps are as unique as the campers who attend them. Choosing a camp with activities and physical fitness requirements that match the child’s abilities can go a long way toward a successful camp experience. Researching various camps by looking to their website, pamphlets and by talking to parents of previous campers can help guide this process.
  2. Provide the camp with a complete annual review of their health by a licensed health care provider–preferably before the first day of camp. It’s important that the health care provider be provided with the camp’s program to allow him or her to evaluate the child’s health as compared to the camp’s program. This annual review should include a history of significant previous illnesses, surgeries, injuries, allergies, emotional health issues as well as a discussion of clinically significant prescription medication and medical conditions requiring ongoing management (e.g. asthma, seizures, diabetes, or dietary restrictions).
  3. Provide camp representatives information about any changes in health status, recent travel, new medications, or changes in maintenance medications.
  4. Be in compliance with the recommended childhood immunization schedules and consult with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if travelling internationally.
  5. Prepare for and reduce homesickness. The AAP offers four steps to reduce “acute psychological distress associated with separation from home and loved ones:
  • Involve the child in the process of choosing and preparing for camp.
  • Discuss homesickness openly. Be positive about the upcoming camp experience and avoid expressing personal doubts or concerns.
  • Arrange practice time away from home with friends or relatives before camp.
  • Frame the time to be spent at camp in comparison with previous enjoyable experiences of similar duration that the child may have had.

Interestingly, making “pick-up” arrangements in the event of homesickness may do more harm than good because these arrangements may undermine the child’s confidence in his or her own independence.

  1. Provide written authorization to obtain treatment, to transport children in camp vehicles for nonemergent care, and to share medical information to camp administrators.
  2. Ensure that health insurance coverage complies with camp rules and that the coverage is in force at the camp’s location.

Get Out

Preparing the Camp

  1. Camp administrators must have a clear understanding of the essential functions of a camper insofar as their specific camp program is concerned and is responsible for providing those expectations to camp parents and to provide accommodations where necessary for the safe participation of all campers.
  2. All camps must have written health policies and protocols that have been reviewed and approved by a physician with specialized training in children’s health, preferably a pediatrician or family physician. These protocols should be tailored to the training and scope of practice of the on-site camp health care providers and should address both major and minor illness and injuries. The camp should consider having protocols  for the following illnesses and conditions:
  • Fever;
  • Conjunctivitis;
  • Upper respiratory tract infections;
  • Otitis externa and media;
  • Streptococcal pharyngitis and sore throat;
  • Vomiting and diarrhea (including large outbreaks);
  • Asthma, anaphylaxis, and allergy management, including food allergies;
  • Skin infections: impetigo, fungal, abscess;
  • Lice and scabies;
  • Dermatitis, including poison ivy and poison oak;
  • Insect bites, stings, and tick exposure;
  • Common injuries, head injury and concussion;
  • Heat- or cold-related illness;
  • Homesickness; and
  • Behavioral or psychiatric episodes.
  1. Camp health care providers with appropriate knowledge and training are responsible for the safe storage and administration of medication. There must be a protocol in place to ensure that medication is stored, transported, and administered safely. Oxygen or other emergency medication or equipment must be periodically checked and staff should be appropriately trained.
  2. Camps must maintain a health record system that documents all camper and staff illnesses and injuries and that allows for surveillance of the camp illness and injury profile. Camp records must have emergency contacts for all children with protocols in place for parental notification.
  3. Employ personnel who can administer on-site first aid and CPR.
  4. Camps should adhere to principles of health living by ensuring that food served and sold in camps follows federal guidelines for school nutrition. Camp staff should model healthful food choices for their campers and food should not be used as a reward, nor punishment. Camps should provide at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity and provide plain water throughout the day–sweetened beverages should either be strictly limited or not used.
  5. When a camp includes or is specifically tailored to children with disabilities and other special health care needs additional assessments and services may be necessary.

Summary

By ensuring our children are prepared for camp and our chosen camp is specifically prepared for our children, we maximize the risk of injury or traumatic experiences for our children and other campers.It goes without saying that we should also prepare our children to encounter and appropriately handle unwelcome encounters–whether with a camp peer bully or a camp leader predator. We all hope and pray that such encounters will not happen to our child, but the fact remains that summer camp is an ideal place for abusers and in recent years sexual abuse has occurred at Christian camps, publicly funded camps, and Boy Scout camps.

Prepare your children for camp by following the AAP recommendations above and check with your chosen camp to ensure they it too follows the AAP recommendations. These safety rules are designed to keep our kids safe, but they can accomplish nothing unless they are followed and expected.

Scott Edwards is a resident of Ridgefield and a partner at the Vancouver law firm of Schauermann Thayer Jacobs Staples & Edwards PS. His practice focuses exclusively on representing persons injured by the carelessness of others. In addition to his work with Vancouver Family Magazine, he has authored a safety blog entitled "Make Safe" where he has written about topics aimed at making our communities safer.

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