City Scene - September 2001: Injury and safety project under way

September 2001

Vote - Local election on 13 October

Boring means a bit less mess

Walkabout for Queen's visit to city

Competitions galore for Neighbourhood Week

Variety of heritage events

Injury and safety project under way

The City Council, in partnership with Crown Public Health, has funding from the Accident Compensation Corporation for a Community Injury Prevention and Safety Initiatives project.

This is a two-stage process. Stage One involves community consultation and the development of a strategy involving various sectors, community based, population-based injury prevention and safety promotion.

At the end of this stage organisations can apply for additional funding for implementation.

Stage two is the implementation and evaluation of interventions.

While Christchurch already has many agencies (and networks such as Road Safety) actively involved in injury prevention, there is need for a framework to encourage collaboration and joint action to address injury prevention in a co-ordinated and appropriate manner for the city.

The issue is that injuries are the leading cause of death in under 40-year-olds and the second leading cause of hospitalisation for all injury categories.

It is estimated that 21 per cent of all New Zealanders have a disability caused by injury.

Several community-based injury-prevention projects exist in New Zealand, all based on the World Health Organisation model. Injury Prevention Waimakariri is one example in the Canterbury area.

Support systems

Many injury prevention activities exist in Christchurch; although people are often significantly contributing to the safety of the community they are working in isolation, without knowledge of other support systems available.

One of the aims of the project is to build a picture, "do a stock take", of injury prevention activities in Christchurch and to find out what is happening in the City Council, other government agencies, and community groups.

The project defines safety and injury prevention activities very broadly and will involve groups ranging from sport, youth issues, childhood injuries, road safety, Maori and pacific island groups, to rehabilitation services providers.

The initial phase of the project is ensuring that Christchurch organisations and groups have the opportunity to take part and see an opportunity to commit and accept roles and responsibilities appropriate for them. Based on this, a framework which co-ordinates and initiates local strategies, initiatives and activities, and which encourages and allows for collaboration within the Christchurch community, will be developed and submitted to the ACC for stage-two funding.

Kay Hickey has been appointed full-time project team member (a joint Council and Crown Public Health appointment) and other members are Barry Armstrong (Public Health) and Council liaison person Margaret Macadam, Policy Directorate.

Contact: Kay Hickey, Health Promotion-Injury Prevention Crown Public Health, PO Box 1475, Christchurch. Phone 03 379 9480 ext 762, or email: Kay.hickey@cph.co.nz.