Haddon developed ten countermeasures for injury prevention. These measures focus on how to control, modify and interrupt energy (eg. thermal, mechanical etc) causing injury to the host (person). [4] [16]
This approach has helped us to understand the origins of injury problems and to identify multiple countermeasures to address those problems. [14]
Example of Haddon's Countermeasures as applied to child injury prevention
This table is based on [4] [14]
| Countermeasure | Example |
| 1. Prevent the creation of the hazard | Banning the sale of unsafe nursery products such as baby walkers |
| 2. Reduce the amount of the hazard | Package medicines in smaller safer amounts |
| 3. Prevent the release of hazards that already exists | Medicine containers that are child resistant |
| 4. Modify the rate or spatial distribution of the hazard from its source | Use properly fitted child restraints |
| 5. Separate by time or space the hazard from that which can be protected | Do not install childs playgrounds near unfenced/unprotected bodies of water |
| 6. Separate the hazard and what is to be protected by a material barrier | Install isolation fencing on all four sides of a swimming pool |
| 7. Modify relevant basic qualities of the hazard | Change the spaces between the bars in a cot to prevent child strangulation |
| 8. Make what is to be protected more resistant to damage from the hazard | All children learn to swim |
| 9. Move rapidly to detect and evaluate the damage that has occurred and counter its continuation and extension | All parents and carers learn CPR and provide efficient emergency services |
| 10. Stabilise, repair and rehabilitate the damage or injured person | Develop rehabilitation plans at an early stage of treatment |
Haddon's Comuntermeasures have contributed to the shift away from education as the principal method of injury prevention toward also including modifying the environments in which injuries occur and developing a multi-strategic approach to injury prevention. [14]
Other languages