Nova Scotia Injury Prevention Strategy
Overview
Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to adopt a comprehensive injury
prevention strategy. The strategy was developed in the fall of 2003 and involved
consultation with 160 injury prevention stakeholders.
The Nova Scotia Injury Prevention Strategy addresses the three leading causes
of injury in Nova Scotia -- falls among the elderly, motor vehicle collisions,
and suicide -- and other areas such as improving injury data collection and
enhancing cooperation among all partners working in injury prevention.
Defining Injury Prevention and Control
Injury control is a broad term
that captures the prevention of injury (i.e. preventing the injury from happening
in the first place), mitigation of injury during an injury-causing event (use
of seatbelts, fall restraints, etc), and response to and treatment of injury
(acute care and rehabilitation).
The Injury Control Model utilizes a series of strategies along the injury
continuum and involves primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
Primary prevention seeks to reduce the number of injury causing events through
injury prevention and safety promotion (i.e. driver education or legislation).
Secondary prevention seeks to reduce harm during an actual injury-causing
event (i.e. a seatbelt use, airbags, helmets).
Tertiary prevention encompasses the response to and treatment and rehabilitation
of injuries so as to reduce their severity and maximize outcome (i.e. EHS system,
hospital trauma team for resuscitation and trauma rehabilitation facility).
The Nova Scotia Injury Prevention Strategy embraces the injury control model,
seeking to prevent injuries from happening in the first place, while ensuring
that if someone is injured, their outcome is optimized.
What is an injury prevention strategy?
An injury prevention strategy
maximizes the ability of all injury stakeholders to reduce the physical, emotional,
and economic impact of injury.
A provincial injury prevention strategy is not intended to eliminate or take
over existing activities and resources that are already in place within communities,
organizations or government departments – it is a way of building upon
the good work already underway.
A strategy is fundamental to the coordination of existing activities and
initiatives, and the elimination of duplication of efforts. A strategy is also
essential in determining priorities, identifying and targeting groups at risk,
and evaluating interventions.
A strategy must be guided by strong leadership and be supported by varied
collaborative efforts across injury prevention groups. Collaboration will help
facilitate the establishment of priorities and will ensure diverse and innovative
approaches to prevention.
The Nova Scotia Injury Prevention strategy is designed to guide effective
planning and implementation of injury prevention initiatives among all injury
control stakeholders.
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Prevention Strategy