Preventing Injuries in Our Community

Northern Ontario

What is an injury?

Injury is the physical damage that results when a human body is suddenly or briefly subjected to intolerable levels of energy.

The time between exposure to the energy and the appearance of an injury is short.

Injuries are often the result of:

• Falls• Motor vehicle collisions• Self-harm • Unintentional poisoning • Sports and recreational activities • Off-road vehicle incidents• Pedestrian related incidents

Aren’t these accidents?

• ACCIDENTS are defined as ‘unavoidable acts of fate’

• INJURIES are causally related to specific risk factors and events… they are predictable

• Which means, they are preventable!

How do we know Injuries are common?

• On a national level, the public health agency of Canada provides data related to the leading causes of hospitalizations and deaths

• Injury is the leading cause of death for Canadians aged 1 – 34

• Further, if we include intentional injuries (suicide) it is the leading cause for ages 1 - 44

Injury in Canada:

Public Health Agency of Canada, 2013.

Injury at a local level:

• Injuries are tracked through a number of provincial and national database in terms of:

– Emergency room visits due to injury– Hospital admissions due to injury– Fatalities due to injury

• For this presentation, the data comes from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s IntelliHEALTH database

• The Northern Region includes the following PHUs: Northwestern, Thunder Bay, Porcupine, Sudbury, Timiskaming, Algoma, and North Bay Parry Sound

What causes injuries in our community?

• In Northern Ontario, the most common causes of injuries are:– Falls– On-road incidents– Off-road incidents – Poisoning – Sports and recreation incidents– Suicide

Emergency Room Visits

Source: Ontario Regional Injury Data Report, 2013

Hospital Admissions

Source: Ontario Regional Injury Data Report, 2013

Fatalities

Source: Ontario Regional Injury Data Report, 2013

Preventing Injuries

• Why does prevention matter?– There is no ‘cure’ for injury– As the data shows, injuries are common– Injuries have been estimated to cost Canadians 19.8

Billion dollars (SMARTRISK, 2009)– Looking past the physical and financial aspects of

injury, there is also the emotional and social aspects– Injuries cause the families in our community needless

emotional pain and loss – Difficult social transitions for injury survivors

What works for prevention?

There are simple strategies we can work on right away to prevent injuries in Northern Ontario:

Falls: Remove hazards, exercise

On-Road Incidents: Be alert and aware, wear seatbelts, slow down

Off-Road Incidents: Minimum driving age, helmet use

Poisoning: Smart storage, active supervision

Sports and Recreation: Wear protective gear, be educated, train

Suicide: Early intervention, mental health treatment and awareness

Injury Prevention

• Strategies often relate to the 3 E’s of Injury Prevention:– Education (e.g., mental health awareness)– Enforcement (e.g., seatbelt laws)– Engineering (e.g., protective gear)

• Injury prevention will be most successful when a combination of these types of strategies is used!

Injury Prevention

• Because these strategies cross many sectors (e.g., equipment development, information technology, law enforcement, education, public health, etc.), prevention efforts that can be designed and implemented with various community partners on board are best

Potential Partners and Resources

• Parachute• Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre• Alberta Centre for Injury Research and

Control• BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit• Atlantic Collaborative on Injury Prevention