Framework for Child Injury Prevention Planning Offers Coordinated Process to Prevent All Injuries
Print This PostChildhood injuries and deaths associated with those injuries are a substantial source of emotional and economic burden on Georgians. Childhood injuries are the leading cause of death for Georgia’s children ages 1–17. Each week, 11 children in Georgia die as a result of an intentional or unintentional injury, averaging 549 deaths per year.
The good news is childhood injuries and deaths are preventable.
Injury Prevention Section (IPS) of the Georgia Division of Public Health, Georgia Department of Human Resources, the Office of Child Fatality Review (OCFR), and the Georgia Office of the Child Advocate recently released Framework for Child Injury Prevention Planning. The intent of the publication is to increase awareness of the extent of childhood injuries, provide a framework for prevention planning by promoting use of evidence-based interventions and evaluation, and encourage collaboration among child-serving agencies at both the state and local level.
According to the report, although Georgia has multiple agencies serving children, no coordinated process exists to prevent all childhood injuries. Agencies need to improve collaboration and coordinated planning of injury prevention efforts to make better use of limited resources. Framework for Child Injury Prevention Planning provides a framework for planning and collaboration.
OCFR’s Prevention Committee members, representing key state agencies and community organizations that provide services to children, decided that the publication would focus on primary prevention—to prevent injury-causing events, promote use of evidence-based interventions, and target injury-related health disparities, where possible.
OCFR and IPS are committed to working together and leading the process to disseminate the publication, serve as a resource to communities in using the framework, and evaluate progress toward its goals.
Download Framework for Child Injury Prevention Planning.
Contact:
William Valladares
Communications Coordinator
404-527-7394 (x114)
william@gafcp.org