Time for a Focused Approach to Injury Prevention
“Because injuries are often characterized as 'accidents,' they don't get the attention--or the resources that they deserve,” writes PI’s Executive Director Larry Cohen in his latest Huffington Post column. However, earlier this month, the European Safety Alliance released Child Safety Report Cards for 31 countries, providing tools to stimulate action and demonstrate each country's strengths and areas for improvement. The Report Cards highlight the importance of environments that protect health and safety and multi-sector collaboration: making change requires increased cooperation among health leaders, city planners, road and transit designers, and public officials, and a stronger focus on changing environments for all communities.
“When many Americans hear the word health, we reflexively think of disease. But it is equally important to remember that injuries are major health concerns and--like many diseases--also preventable,” Larry writes in his column. There is a great opportunity to learn from the many different solutions to improving health and safety, and we owe it to our families--and our healthcare budgets--to invest in a future where we can all live injury-free. While we can't prevent every injury, we can cut the numbers in half with motivated, strategic effort. In order to do this, we must move our focus to prevention. Read the full Huffington Post now.