Safe Community Network
Info from 2000-2005


For a number of years this was the website for the Safe Community Network. Content is from the site's 2000-2005 archived pages as well as from other outside sources offering just a glimpse of what this site offered its visitors.

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The Safe Community movement started in Sweden at the end of the 1980s and was based on community-based injury prevention activities. Safe Communities are the communities that meet a set of 12 criteria (later changed to six indicators) set out by the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) on Community Safety Promotion at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. The communities may apply to the WHO CC to be designated as an official member of the WHO International Safe Community Network. To date, 83 communities around the world have been designated as members of the Safe Community Network, ranging in population from 1000 to nearly 2 million. Lidkjöping in Sweden was the first designated safe community in 1989 and Rapla in Estonia was the last, designated in October 2004. The movement recognizes that it is the people who not only live, learn, work and play in a community, but also best understand their community's specific problems, needs, assets and capacities. Their involvement and commitment are critical factors in identifying and mobilizing resources so as to create an effective, comprehensive and coordinated community-based action on unintentional and intentional injuries.

31 Jul 2004, Accepted 15 Dec 2004, Published online: 16 Feb 2007
Yousif Rahim

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An observation:
As a high school student I was very interested in the work of the WHO CC Affiliate Safe Community Support Centres and followed the movement. In college I decided to join the Peace Corp after I graduated. It seemed to fit into my goals of giving back. I became an agriculture volunteer working with small-scale farmers and families to increase food security and production and adapt to climate change while promoting environmental conservation. It was a great experience. I've returned to the US and decided to go back to school for a master's degree in computer programming. Jump ahead to the present. I am now working with a nonā€profit organization providing programs and services to promote sustainable, local organic food and farming. I have been tasked with creating a new website for the organization that will be e commerce oriented. The options for an e commerce platform can be overwhelming when you are first starting out whether or not you have a degree in computer programing! I am in the midst of research and found a great site that introduces its visitors to the world of e commerce platforms. The site appears to understand very well the requirements of business owners and entrepreneurs, and the thorough learning curve it takes, to be present online successfully with the right type of platform for your needs. The site gathers updated information, then reviews and compares new software and tools, ecommerce features, and finally shares tips and solutions to assist visitors, like myself to succeed in the online ecommerce ecosystem, with confidence, knowledge, and solid decision making. Their blog posts were most helpful. We plan on hiring a graphics designer/ photographer. I am hoping that within 6 months the new site will be p and running. It's been a fascinating trip from my high school interest in the Safe Community movement, thru the Peace Corp to where I am now.



 

WHO CC Affiliated Safe Community Support Centres  

 

 


1.

Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research, Edmonton

Canada

1996

2.

Monash University Accident Research Centre, Melbourne

Australia

1997

3.

Safe Communities Foundation,Toronto

Canada

1997

4.

Royal Children's Hospital Safety Centre, Melbourne

Australia

1999

5.

Sicher Leben, Vienna

Austria

1999

6.

The Occupational Safety and Health Council, Hong Kong

China

2000

7.

Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Auckland, Auckland

New Zealand

2000

9.

Centre for Safety Promotion, Stockholm County

Sweden

2000

10.

Centre for Peace Action, Johannesburg

South Africa

2001

11.

Institute of Child & Mother Health

Bangladesh

2002

12.

Norwegian Safety Promotion Centre

Norway

2003

 



 

 

2003

Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre-Institute of Child and Mother Health

Name of the support centre: Institute of Child and Mother Health
Country: Bangladesh
Population:
Bangladesh 2001 -130 million,
Sherepur Sadar Upazila 2001 – 400,000
Program started: the Sherpur Safe Community Programme started in 1999
"WHO designation" year: 2002
More information: www.icmhbd.org

 

Identity: The Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH), Matuail, Dhaka, Bangladesh is an unique Institute works not only for the welfare of the children and mothers of Bangladesh but also for all children and mothers the world over.

Mission: To respond to the needs of children and mothers in the country particularly in the field of health and nutrition.

Vision: ICMH is a unique institution to guide and lead the country in child and mother health and a model of combined community and hospital based services on preventive promotive and curative care.

Objectives:

  • Health and Nutrition research in child and mother health;
  • Human resources development through training in child and mother health;
  • Provision of health care in the community, out patients and inpatients.


Strategies:

  • Combining community and hospital based care for children and mothers;
  • Combining care of children and mothers health;
  • Emphasizing on nutrition of children and mothers;
  • Equal emphasis on need based research, training and patient care.

Special Characteristics of ICMH:
The institute is characterised by having very clear mission, vision, goal, objectives, strategies and action plan. Research, training on child and mother health and nutrition as well as patient care are all organised under the umbrella of a single institute. It has highly trained, skilled, motivated and committed faculty members. This community based Institute hosts a Faculty of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Training and Communication with excellent training facilities, Department of Energy and Biomedical Engineering. Of special note is the excellent Auditorium, conference rooms for national, regional and international conferences as well as arrangements for residential training. ICMH has a community-based branch at Jalkuri. In this institute, we are planning to provide quality patient care through protocol based patient management as well as efficient hospital management supported by computer networking, high quality medical record system and up to date library facility. The location of the institute is also favourable to keep contact with the rural community. The institute has a strong commitment to promote safety among all population of Bangladesh.

Manpower:
Among the total 255 approved posts, currently there are 230 staff members of whom 45% are female. Out of 230 members, 51 are class I, 12 are class II, 105 are class III and 62 are class IV staff.

Sherpur Safe Community Programme:
The Sherepur Safe Community Projgramme was lunched in December 1999 based on the WHO Safe Community model. It is also based on the injury surveillance system that had been on operation for four years. This is a research as well as developmental programme with an over all goal of safety promotion, injury prevention and social development in the area.

Sherpur Safe Community Programme is a collaborative programme of Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH), Matuail, Dhaka, Bangladesh and Karolinska Institutet, Norrbacka, Stockholm, Sweden on injury prevention. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) has made available fund for this programme.

The Program area, Sherpur Sadar Upazila, (Upazila is a sub- district), having around 400,000 population in 380 Sq. Km. and it is located about 200 km away from Dhaka, the capital Bangaldesh, and situated at the mid northern Bangladesh-India border. Sherpur district headquarters, which is a municipal town, is housed in this Upazila. Geographically the area is featured by plain land, traversed by a big river and many other small rivers and canals and a lot of other natural surface water reservoirs like ponds and ditches. Socio- economically people are poor in general, around 70% live below poverty level. The main professions of the inhabitants are agriculture ,Business, Service, Share Cropping, Day laborer, Rickshaw puller, Rice mills worker, Carpentry, Mud culling, Pottering etc.

For intervention programs the project has also identified its control area at Netrokona (another sub district or upazila) which is very similar in all respects having around 300,000 population. It has also a district headquarters and the municipality of the same size like Sherepur. The control area is about 110 km away from program area.

An employed set-up, comprising Nine people, governs administrative functions of this program. This body is primarily responsible for coordinating community organization participation in safe community initiatives, for program management and for implementation of interventions.

As mentioned earlier an injury surveillance system ( hospital based ) had been developed in Sherpur since 1997 which has provided epidemiological features and information for initiating intervention program.

This intervention program hoped to act as countermeasures to lowdown occurrence of injury events (intentional and unintentional) as well as will serve as an experimental research in suburban-rural setting in Bangladesh. The interventions would be based on intersectoral approach ensuring community participation. Educational, engineering, environmental, legislative, mass media, and improved case management are the mainstays of interventions local condition. By principle the program allows a greater degree flexibility to absorb suggestions from community in the course of program implementation and the practical experiences provide the action guide in many situations.

The main program efforts are exerted in primary health care level but it also uses secondary level health care arrangements.

VISION, AIM, GOAL, TARGET

Vision:
 To develop an ideal injury prevention and safety promotion program for demonstrating other parts of Bangladesh and also for the whole developing world.

Aim: To attain WHO safe community recognition for the study area.

Goals:
1) Creating national level Govt. authority & opinion leaders to take national injury prevention plan through presenting success stories of this program.
2) Creating a favorable state which might stimulate conscience of national Govt. in recognizing injury as a major public health problem and thereby motivating them to incorporate injury prevention program in current " Five year plan for Health and population sector programs".

Strategies :

  1. Prevention of all types of injuries among all age groups;
  2. Behavior change communication;
  3. Education and safety measures;
  4. Modification of risk environments potential for injuries;
  5. Improving injury case management;
  6. Gaining commitment from government, political and social leaders.


CURRENT ACTIVITIES
1. Establishing injury Surveillance system:

The program has established an injury surveillance system in it’s program area and also in the control area.

At Sherpur, surveillance data are being collected from: Hospital, Police report, Postmortem report, from Volunteers (Community level).

Hospital data: Hospital data are collected from admitted patients using a standard format. An inbuilt data collection and entry into the computer has been arranged by setting a computer corner and training two persons who themselves collect data.

Police report and post mortem report: These report is collected from local police station’s record.

From volunteers (Community level): The program is collecting data from village volunteers.

Initially community health centers ( Govt. & NGOs ) & clinics were in the list of surveillance data sources but after one year effort it is concluded that data collected from these points are insignificant and it does not contribute anything to surveillance. This dismaying observation then compelled us to drop these sources from surveillance purview.

In the control area data are collected from: Hospital, Police report and  Postmortem report.

In addition to this, surveillance system is supplemented by household surveys. In both the program and control area the surveillance system is computerized.

Local networking: The very initial step of mobilizing local community was to local networking arranging personal appointments and discussing aims & objectives of the program and thereby securing commitment of cooperation .

The sectors covered are:

  • Existing health system (CS, THFPO)
  • Public administration (DC, SP, TNO)
  • Other relevant Govt. departments like police (including village police setup), engineering etc.
  • Elected public representatives (MP, Municipal Chairman, UP Chairmen);
  • Various Association leaders;
  • Local elite;
  • Local NGO,s.


3. Household survey: The program has conducted two household surveys, one at Sherpur and the other at Netrakona. Each covered around 16000 households in an average. Both Sherpur and Netrokona survey surfaced drowning, RTA, fall, suicide as priority injury problems.

4. School training: In order to produce a conscious future generation regarding injury issues and also to change risky behavior of school children and youngsters, the program has started a school training program. Initially 5 schools of Sherpur town have been selected involving school administration in planning and implementing. Two manuals, other audio-video materials have been developed as training materials.

The said 5 schools are reputed high schools in the town where manual based very structured training courses are offered. In rest of the schools situated in program area (high, junior high and primary schools) nearly 250 in numbers are offered one day orientation. By now, these schools have been covered for once and will be repeated for second time.

Module based school training (in 5 schools) is conducted by the schools themselves. Two teachers from each school have been trained on how to conduct sessions. Teachers and students are given modules. Modules are self explained means how to present sections of the module is stated there and also the ways to make sessions attractive and complete is also mentioned there. For each session logistic support is given from the program and a field coordinator remain present there to watch and finally the field coordinator take an instant examination using a question sheet where two / three questions on the presented session are asked. Field coordinator then collect the answer sheets and mark on those and gives back to the students to communicate their last days performance. The mechanism gave schools self control and articulated teachers – students on being concentrated on the subject matter.

5. Behavior Change Communications:

To communicate injury prevention messages to the target community, the following means of communication are being used like:

  1. Distributing leaflet: A leaflet have prepared describing programs objectives and activities in short. In three occasions 12000 were printed and distributed.
  2. Erecting bill board: Four bill boards are made depicting RTA and dog bite/snake bite picture and messages and posted in road side.
  3. Wall writings: 20 wall writings with picture and messages have been done in different places of the town and 14 in selected places of villages. Some of the prototype of these bounded in small board which are pretty portable, are being used in social mobilization meetings/ gatherings.
  4. Video presentation: Recording the statements of the victim’s families we have prepared a video. This is being used in social mobilization meetings, especially in rural area.
  5. Calendar distribution: On the occasion of New Bengali year we prepared a Calendar which comprised some messages.
  6. Advertisement in various publications: We have managed to publish five advertisements / publications in various magazines / newspapers. We speculate that this will give a good publicity.
  7. Cinema slide presentation: The program has produced six prototypes of posters / pictures which will be showing in cinema halls before starting movies. There are six cinema halls in the town.
  8. Album: We are creating two albums. One by pasting newspaper cuttings on injury, both from local and national newspaper. The other is by the pictures of our activities.


6. Social mobilization meetings:

General: We have done 97 general social mobilization meetings. One with Government departmental officers, One with Officers of Non- Government organizations, Professionals, Associations, local elite, One with Health providers, Two with sub-district administrative body, Two with municipal body and 14 with village union council bodies.

Parallel to these general meetings we have completed 70 village meetings. These village meetings are organized with the help of local elected Union Council Members, volunteers and other local leaders who has strong social influence on social life. We have created a set of logistics to support these meetings so that the session can be offered in a very organized and attractive way.

As we were advancing and looking for effective ways for ensuring community participation our experience identified community volunteers very useful. We followed a methodology to find them out instead of asking village authorities to give a list. We asked household members some specific questions (i.e To whom you consult first when you are in medical problem ? ) and based on their answers we could find names. They are all times friends in need of community people. They can be told as natural leaders of villagers. From each Union we selected 27 such persons and called them in meetings. In meeting we made them understood what role we expect them to play for our program. We could complete 8 volunteers meetings.

Special: We have designed some special type of social mobilization meeting arrangement like for drowning / Snake bite / dog bite - we have created a mechanism to get fresh injury death news. As soon as we get a news we move there and have a social mobilization meeting with local people on the spot, so that people can see the justification of our words. We have done 71 such meetings so far.

7. Community coalition: As the program now know the priority injury problems for the program area, it has now started dialogue to form community coalition to secure community participation. Separating the community into two sections, Urban and Rural, we have formed two community coalitions. One, for rural community under the chairmanship of Sub-district administrator and 14 elected public representatives. The other one, formed for urban community under Municipal Chairman and 9 elected municipal commissioners.

8. Volunteer support group: Driven by the experiences from rural community we have marked that some people do welfare work for the people of his / her locality out of their natural instinct. Usually these people are local social leaders, school teachers, religious leaders etc. they serve people, guide people without any personal interest. The program considered these volunteers suitable for reaching people and as a means of successful intervention. With this thinking, we have started a process of finding out them asking household heads and listing up them to create a volunteer support group. We 14 Unions and selected 27 volunteers from each Union whom we planned to train for preparing as support group. Asd we mentioned earlier 8 such groups are trained already.

9. Specific measures: The program was continuously studying the local situation to know the injury sources, factors and trying to find out specific measures to reduce injuries. One specific measure that we developed is a tube-well handle guard which prevents injury produced by the handle of tube well which is the universal source of drinking water in the program area. Tube-well users acceptance was very encouraging. The program had a plan take a wide scale promotion on this for the program area but due to resource and time scarcity we had to be limited.

The project activities include local networking, establishing injury surveillance system, household survey on drowning, road traffic accidents, suicide and injury due to fall and injury education program for community people including school children. Among the specific measures the project has developed a tube-well handle guard which prevents injury due to tube-well handles. Research, consultancy, advocacy, and lobbying for legislative change are also important activities of the Sherpur project.

Other involvement of ICMH in Safety promotion

International commitments:

The institute is committed to develop an ideal injury prevention and safety promotion programme for demonstrating other parts of Bangladesh and also for the whole developing world.

Conference organisation and participation:
The project is actively involved in local, national and international conferences as organisers and presenters. The institute organised the Safe Comm-9, Dhaka, February 2000. A good number of staff of the project presented their work in the conference. Staff have received scholarships to present their work at the Sixth World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control, Montreal, Canada, May 2002. Three staff will also participate and present their work in the First Asian Regional Conference in Injury Prevention, Suwon City, South Korea. The project has presented work at the 4th, 6th and 7th, 8th, & 10th SafeComm conferences as both presenter and key note speaker during 1994-2001.

Educational activities:
The institute has extensive teaching commitments with undergraduate teaching in community safety, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching of medical students, MPH and Graduate Diploma in Child Health students, stakeholder of injury prevention, and a range of secondary and tertiary students.

Staff:
Number:
 20 staff, 2 full-time, 16 part-time and 2 temporary.
Disciplines: Public health, Epidemiology, information technology, Statistics, social sciences, community development and teaching.

 

 



 

2000

Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre
Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Auckland - Auckland, New Zealand

 

Name of the Community/centre: Injury Prevention Research Centre,
University of Auckland, Auckland
Country: New Zealand
Number of Inhabitants: 1999 population of New Zealand: 3,811,000
1999 population of Auckland: 1.175,400
Programme started: 1994: Support for the development, implementation and evaluation of the WHO Safe Communities model in New Zealand
WHO- designated year: April 2000
More information on the WWW – www.auckland.ac.nz/ipc/index.htm


Identity: The Injury Prevention Research Centre was established in 1990. The Centre has now grown to more than 30 full-time and part-time research and support staff. IPRC has been a strong supporter of the community-based injury prevention initiatives established in New Zealand over the past six years.

The IPRC has worked to support the two New Zealand WHO Safe Communities (Waitakere and Waimakariri). It also supports a third established New Zealand Safe Community project (Tai Rawhiti). The IPRC conducted external evaluations of CIPPs in Waitakere City and Tai Rawhiti and was part of the initial evaluation team for Waimakariri and Eastern Bay of Plenty Rural Education Activities Programme (SKIP). IPRC is also currently involved in the formative evaluation of the Manukau City CIPP. In addition, IPRC provides support for the further development of the WHO Safe Communities movement throughout New Zealand. Currently this involves input into the establishment of Safe Communities alongside local governments, healthcare organisations and runanga. In collaboration with Safekids, the IPRC is also providing evaluative information of relevance to 87 community coalitions through New Zealand.

Role: The overall purpose of the IPRC is to contribute to reductions in mortality, morbidity, disability and costs associated with injury and to contribute to improvements in well being, among individuals both in New Zealand and internationally.

The IPRC conducts multidisciplinary research to identify causes of injuries and effective ways to prevent or reduce injury. In addition to prevention, the IPRC examines ways in which appropriate care at the time of injury and an appropriate rehabilitation strategy can minimise both the severity of injury and any subsequent disability. The Centre also provides training to nurture and produce skilled professionals in the field of injury prevention research. It is also committed to disseminating the findings of its research, to bring about a real reduction in injury.

Since its establishment, the Centre has also actively sought and maintained a collaborative approach to the conduct of its research. While acknowledging the particular skills and topic knowledge of Centre staff, collaborators with in-depth topic knowledge or additional complementary methodological skills are identified and included either as collaborators or as part of a study's advisory group.

IPRC engages in the following safety promotion activities:

CURRENT INJURY PREVENTION RESEARCH PROGRAMME:

EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS RESEARCH PROGRAMME

  • Ngati Porou Community Injury Prevention Project Evaluation
  • Turanganui-a-kiwa Community Injury Prevention Project Evaluation
  • Waitakere Community Injury Prevention Project Evaluation
  • Kidsafe Week 1999 Evaluation
  • A comprehensive evaluation of the Mentally Healthy Schools initiative
  • Impact evaluation of the schools as first point of contact for health services
  • Community-based intervention on adolescent risk-taking: using research for community action.
  • Adolescent Stop Smoking Programme: Evaluation
  • Youth Health Community Action Programme: Evaluation
  • Mental Health Matters: formative evaluation report
  • Manukau Community Injury Prevention Project Evaluation
  • Evaluation of the Drugs Education Development Project
  • Safe Routes to School – Evaluation
  • Evaluation of Waimakariri Community Injury Prevention Project
  • Safe Kawerau Evaluation


INJURIES TO OLDER PEOPLE RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Fall Related Injuries

  • Preventing falls and fall-related injuries among older people living in institutions
  • Randomised control trial to reduce fall-related injuries among older people
  • Randomised controlled trial of a general practice, home based exercise programme for falls prevention in elderly women
  • Prevalence of physical inactivity in New Zealanders 60 years and older

Hip Fractures

  • Residential status and risk of hip fracture
  • Two year outcomes of hip fracture in 450 older people
  • Pulmonary Embolism Prevention trial
  • Investigation into the receptivity to hip protective underwear among staff and residents of residential institutions
  • Circumstances of falls resulting in hip fractures among older people


VIOLENCE RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Overview

  • The economic cost of homicide in New Zealand
  • Intentional injury in New Zealand
  • Injury from assault in New Zealand: an increasing public health problem
  • Incidence of death and hospitalisation from assault occurring in and around licensed premises: a comparative analysis

Family Violence

  • Emergency Department staff responses to a protocol of care for abused women
  • Indicators of assault-related injuries among women presenting to the ED
  • Community readiness model to address family violence
  • Outcome evaluation of an emergency department protocol of care on partner abuse
  • Violence against women: priorities for public health research in New Zealand
  • Family Violence: Guidelines for providers to develop practice protocols

Child Abuse

  • Inter-rater reliability in the medical diagnosis of child sexual abuse
  • Identification of effective strategies to address child abuse
  • Victims of child sexual abuse: effects of therapy

Firearms

  • Epidemiology of firearm injuries in New Zealand
  • Airgun injuries in New Zealand 1979-92
  • Non-fatal firearm misuse: license status of perpetrators and legality of the firearms

Suicide

  • Depression as an indicator for suicide
  • A status report of suicide and parasuicide in the Auckland region
  • A practical guide to coping with suicide
  • Economic cost associated with suicide and attempted suicide in New Zealand
  • Young person suicide prevention – a parent's perspective
  • Suicide and attempted suicide in New Zealand: a growing problem for young males
  • Young people's perspectives on ways to address youth suicide
  • Young people at risk of suicide: a guide for schools
  • Contact directory: Youth suicide
  • Community-based strategies to address youth suicide: Development, implementation and formative evaluation
  • Maori case control study of suicide and attempted suicide
  • Young person suicide: resiliency and paths to well-being
  • Pacific young person suicide

Youth Risk-Taking

  • Risk-taking behaviours among a sample of New Zealand adolescents
  • Alcohol misuse and young people

ROAD VEHICLE INJURY RESEARCH PROGRAMME

Pedestrians

  • An international study of the exposure of children to traffic
  • Pedestrian injury rates: the importance of “exposure to risk” relating to socioeconomic and ethnic differences, in Auckland
  • The urban traffic environment and the risk of child pedestrian injury: a case-crossover approach
  • Preventing child pedestrian injury: Pedestrian education or traffic calming
  • Environmental factors and child pedestrian injuries
  • Child pedestrian mortality and traffic volume in New Zealand

Motor Vehicle Occupants

  • Migraine: a risk factor for motor vehicle driver injury
  • Causes of car crash injuries investigation
  • Auckland Car Crash Case Control Study
  • Outcomes following car crash
  • Alcohol and motor vehicle crashes: a review of the epidemiological evidence
  • Motor vehicle occupant injuries in New Zealand children
  • Child restraint use among Maori

Motorcycle Injuries

  • Motorcycle engine size and risk of moderate to fatal injury from a motorcycle crash
  • Motorcycle injuries in New Zealand
  • Risk factors for motorcycle injury: the rate of age, gender, experience, training and alcohol
  • Motorcycle trauma: nature, severity and outcome

OTHER RESEARCH AREAS

Injury Surveillance

  • Injury surveillance in public hospital emergency departments
  • An area analysis of child injury morbidity in Auckland
  • Tai Rawhiti Injury Monitoring System
  • Waitakere Injury Monitoring System
  • New Zealand Blood Donors Health Study
  • Guidelines for a minimum data set for injury surveillance: An injury prevention research perspective
  • Auckland and Northland Injury Surveillance system
  • Regional variation in the incidence of hip fracture in New Zealand
  • Directory of injury surveillance data recorded by New Zealand hospital emergency departments

Back Injuries

  • Occupational groups at greatest risk of chronic back injury
  • Nurses and back injury
  • Prevalence of back pain among nurses
  • Psychological factors and chronic back pain
  • Managing occupational low back pain to reduce the impact on employers

Sports Injury

  • Risk factors and other health problems sustained in a marathon
  • Rugby league injuries and their prevention
  • Incidence of injuries and other health problems in the Auckland marathon
  • Falls and young people

Drowning

  • Declines in drowning: exploring the epidemiology of favourable trends
  • Role of alcohol in boating safety
  • The role of alcohol in drowning and boating deaths in the Auckland region



Facilitation and evaluation of community-based injury prevention initiatives

The IPRC has supported the WHO Safe Communities Waitakere and Tai Rawhiti Community Injury Prevention Projects from their inception, planning and establishment phases several years ago up to the present and intends to continue ongoing support especially with regard to monitoring changes in injury rates. The IPRC has also been responsible for the formative, process and outcome evaluation of these programmes. In addition the IPRC is responsible for the formative evaluation of the injury prevention project in Counties-Manukau, based at the Manukau City Council, which is in the development phase.
The IPRC has been, and continues to be, readily available to all these communities as a resource on local data, summary information on successful injury prevention measures and strategies through literature searches both on the internet and the University's database and to advise on resource development, implementation strategies and evaluation methodologies. Staff from IPRC were also involved in the preparation of policy guidelines for the future development of community-based injury prevention projects in New Zealand.

Surveillance of Injuries

The major database for which IPRC has primary responsibility is the analysis of injury data from death and hospitalisations throughout the Northland and Auckland region. The IPRC has also been involved in the use of routinely collected data from the Auckland University's Pathology Department to identify all possible drownings in the Auckland area between 1980 to the end of 1997. In collaboration with Associate Professor Gordon Smith (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health), IPRC will be developing additional monitoring systems using coronial databases.

Publications and information dissemination

The IPRC has a policy of disseminating research findings via a variety of sources. These include: academic peer-review articles; policy reports; Centre report series; summary fact sheets for the general public; formal oral presentations; seminar series; informal meetings with interested parties; newspaper articles and other contacts with the media. In addition, the IPRC produces an Annual Report and an annual Publications List that contains information pertaining to publications and all other Centre activities.

Information Resource Unit
The Information and Resource Unit is a valuable and popular part of the IPRC. It was set up to inform and improve health promotion initiatives aimed at the prevention and control of injury. Through this Unit of the IPRC, injury prevention practitioners, health authorities, government departments, students, staff, and members of the general public are able to access a wealth of information on injury and injury prevention issues. The Unit holds over 3,000 resources that are indexed on an Inmagic database. The Unit also holds copies of current articles on injury prevention and control as well as current morbidity and mortality data for New Zealand. Areas that receive particular attention are violence, in particular family violence and suicide, road safety, child injury prevention health education and promotion and health issues surrounding Maori and Pacific people.
The Unit also disseminates information on injury prevention through publicity about the Centre on national and international list servers, the NZICB, articles and frequent mail outs of new material to practitioners and interested people.
The Internet has become a major source of information on the current activities of groups involved in injury prevention. In acceptance of this fact, the IPRC has a home page identifying sites which may provide information on publications and research being done in the fields of injury and injury prevention. The home page also lists the reports and fact sheets that have been published by IPRC as well as articles published by members of IPRC.

New Zealand Injury Control Bulletin (NZICB)
The IPRC publishes the New Zealand Injury Control Bulletin three times a year. The NZICB is an eight page bulletin which reaches approximately 1500 readers. Included among its readership are injury prevention practitioners, government departments, politicians, policy makers, funders and media. A further 500 copies are distributed to visitors to the Centre, at seminars and conferences and to people who make inquiries or require information.

The bulletin aims to inform and stimulate discussion about injury prevention issues in a relevant and newsworthy manner. A wide range of topics are covered including child safety, sports injuries, workplace injuries, injuries to older people, injuries to Maori and Pacific people, motor vehicle injuries, violence and intentional injuries. New resources, upcoming conferences and meetings and recommended websites are listed in each issue and most are accompanied by one or more inserts, usually a Fact Sheet.


International Commitments

In 1998 IPRC hosted two overseas visitors – Associate Professor Gordon Smith from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the USA and Associate Professor Borge Ytterstad from University of Tromso, Norway. Their input into the academic and social life of the Centre during their respective stays cannot be underestimated. IPRC also encourages visits to the Centre to discuss issues of mutual interest. A list of all visitors to the Centre is included in the annual report.

Conference and seminar organisation and participation
IPRC is continuously active in the organisation of injury prevention conferences and seminars at a variety of levels – national community-based injury prevention network meetings and other seminars and conferences. For example, staff were actively involved in organising the first national community-based injury prevention network meeting in Waitakere in April 1998. IPRC also assisted with the organisation of the First Asia-Pacific Conference on Safe Communities held in Waitakere in 1998.

Conferences and seminar presentations are seen as an important opportunity to disseminate the work done at the IPRC to a national and international audience and to highlight the importance of the injury prevention message. Researchers at the IPRC are encouraged to attend conferences and present their research at every opportunity and over the past year have presented their research at more than 20 conferences and seminars.

Educational activities

During the 1990s IPRC staff gave substantial time commitment to the organisation of a two-week-long national training course on injury prevention. Since its inception the IPRC has also supported Ph.D. students. Currently there are nine Ph.D. students working at the IPRC. Members of IPRC staff also participate in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, workforce development and seminar presentations.


Staff
A major strength of IPRC is that the broad qualifications and skills base of its staff enables the Centre to undertake a wide range of research projects and related activities. IPRC has more than 30 full-time and part-time research and support staff. Its researchers include epidemiologists, sociologists, psychologists, public health medicine specialists, nurses, engineers, clinicians, allied health professionals and community and policy advocates.

Core Staff:
Dr. Carolyn Coggan, Acting Director; Glenda Northey, Information and Resource Unit Manager; Rhonda Hooper, Data Analyst; Persees Antia, Secretary and Administrator; Helen Bourne, Publicist.
 


For further information contact:
Dr. Carolyn Coggan
Acting Director

Or

Gay Richards
Information and Research Unit Manager
Injury Prevention Research Centre
Universityof Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
Phone: +649 373 7599 x84640
Fax: +649 373 7057

 




 

Welcome to Safe Community Network

CONFERENCES 2004 - 2005

14th International Conference on Safe Communities, 13 - 15 June 2005 Bergen, Norway.  www.safebergen.com

13th International Conference on Safe Communities

Speakers Feature Startup Experts:

Reny Williamson
Satya Rangarajan

2 - 4 June 2004.Prague, Czech Republic

 

Center for Injury Prevention, Charles University, Prague designated as an Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre

 

 

Vienna City designated as a WHO safe Community

8th June 2004, Vienna, Austria

 

Meeting in Safe Community Affiliate Support Centres

 

 

Safe Community flag handed over to the Bergen, Norway

14th Int. Safe Community Conference, 13-15 June 2005   

 

Motal Community re-designated as a Safe Community

10 May 2004

 

 

Pacific Rim Safe Communities Conference
15-17 September 2004
Mackay, Qld, Australia

For further information:
www.nisu.flinders.edu.au/aipn/conference2004

 

3rd Asian Regional Conference on Safe Communities

19 - 22 October 2005

Taipei, Taiwan

www.safe2005.com.tw

 

For more information

Ling Chang

Phone: +886 2 8791 0456

Email: lingchang27@yahoo.com

 

   

14th International Safe Community Conference

13-15 June 2005

Bergen, Norway

www.safebergen.com

 

For more information:

Camilla Indrearne

Phone: +47 5517 1686

Fax: +47 5517 2900

Email: camilla.indrearne@vesta.no

 

Svein Erik Rastad

Phone: +47 5517 1919

Fax: +47 5526 1919

Email: svein-erik.rastad@vesta.no

 

The 8th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion

Johannesburg, South Africa

 19th to the 22nd March 2006

www.safety2006.info

Conference Secretariat:
Tel: +27-(0)12-481 2094
Fax: +27-(0)12-481 2112
E-mail: sec@safety2006.info 

PO Box 74789, Lynnwood Ridge, PRETORIA, 0040, South Africa

 

 

Designation of the Center for Injury Prevention and Community Safety Promotionat Ajou University  - Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre No. 14 in the World

15th November 2004

Designation of Rapla county in Estonia as a WHO Safe Community

1st October 2004

 

Designation of Toowoomba as a WHO Safe Community

11. September 2004

Designation of Mackay Whitsunday Safe Communities project

31 August 2004, Mackay, Australia

 

 

Center for Injury Prevention, Charles University, Prague designated as an Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre

 

13th International Conference on Safe Communities

2 - 4 June 2004.Prague, Czech Republic

Vienna City designated as a WHO Safe Community

8th June 2004, Vienna, Austria

 

Motal Community re-designated as a Safe Community

10 May 2004

Safe Community flag handed over to the Bergen, Norway

14th Int. Safe Community Conference, 13-15 June 2005   

Meeting in Safe Community Affiliate Support Centres

 


SafeCommunity.net