Injury Prevention Feedback Summary Report

Summer 2011

 Injury Prevention programs provided by the Warren County Health Department (WCHD) have been well received with positive feedback and requests for continuation of present offerings as well as suggestions for additional services.  Daycares in our area with summer programs (many which include bike days as a weekly activity for the kids) participated in bicycle helmet fitting events.  The directors and staff were engaged in feedback sessions to determine relevance and satisfaction with current program and presentation format.  The following are some highlights.

• Appreciative of the free helmets and the instruction to the staff on how to fit.  Helps ensure that children will wear helmets correctly while at school and allows staff the ability to teach parents when they have questions.  It also allows the staff to be able to adjust as needed.
• The program has led to policies within the centers to require helmet use while riding wheeled toys at all times (bicycles, tricycles, scooters, etc.)
• The incorporation of booster seat education and information about when it is safe to ride in the front seat was well received.  Started conversations between parents and kids (the older ones especially) about what is safe and what is not. 
• Joining forces with fire, police and ambulance services enhanced the education/message for the kids when included in “Safety Day” events at the schools. 
• Centers would like the helmet provision and fittings/trainings to occur on a yearly basis and have committed to enforcing the no helmet/no ride policies. 

Numerous community events conducted with our partners in the fire and ambulance districts and our school partners (private and public) have been considered successful by our partners and increased our outreach to the community.  Discussions following our community cooperative events reinforce that these should be sustained if at all possible.  Thoughts shared included the importance of residents seeing a united effort of service agencies and organizations to address the needs of the community.  In addition we want to viewed as a resource, not just someone who is there in a time of crisis or need.  It has strengthened our outreach and as other community partners have expressed, it allows us as professionals to interact with each other in non-crisis mode.  The interaction with the school districts has enhanced our ability to partner for other meaningful endeavors such as school based flu clinics and back to school immunization events.

Overall consensus from our feedback sessions is that existing injury prevention programing should continue, is valuable to our partners and our community and makes a positive impact.  The provision of actual product (helmets, car seats and booster seats) is needed and desired, however the value of education and train the trainer sessions should be a focus as well.  All agreed it enhances sustainability, “compliance” and consistency with appropriate use.  It widens the audience impacted when external staff can educate parents in real time when the opportunity presents itself.  Areas where more education is desired included rural safety topics (see Rural Health newsletter).  We look forward to continuing our community-wide efforts on injury prevention in Warren County. This is a priority area for our agency and our community partners, regardless of funding shifts that may occur we will continue to collaborate to provide injury prevention education and services to our residents.