SC-_Getting-Started.ppt

SAFE COMMUNITIES Getting Started America’s Problem INJURY CO$T$ ARE ENORMOUS Crashes cost society $150 Billion annually – OF THAT AMOUNT: $17 Billion is medical costs 37.5 Billion is employer costs $54.7 Billion is lost productivity Defining Safe Communities Safe Communities is a process, not a program. Safe Communities is a coalition centered, data driven prevention model. Safe Communities emphasizes motor vehicle crashes as a leading injury prevention issue. History of Safe Communities First used as an injury prevention model by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1989 Safe CommunitiesGetting Started Checklist Form a core community coalition Create a community profile Examine local injury data Prioritize injury problems using data Organize coalition with subcommittees Identify/implement prevention strategies Measure impact and cost benefits Safe CommunitiesSuccess Stories For over a century, we disguised the way we thought of traffic crashes and the resulting injuries by labeling them as mere accidents. By doing so, we preserved the myth that crashes simply happen. It couldn’t be helped. No one’s to blame. They’re an inevitable part of life. But crashes and injuries are not accidents. Most medical conditions are predictable and can either be prevented or controlled. And so can motor vehicle injuries. The best approach is to enable and empower local people to solve their local injury problems. Forming a Safe Communities coalition gets agencies and organizations already concerned about injuries working in closer collaboration and brings new partners in to help. In the next few minutes, we’re going to take a closer look at the list of things our community needs to do to get started: Forming a core coalition or working group to get the ball rolling; Creating a community profile to better understand who’s living and working and being injured and dying in our community; Examining and analyzing local injury data; Prioritizing inj