Child injury prevention is about stopping harm from occurring to children. The harm may have happened with or without intent. Child injury prevention involves finding out what we can all do and how we can all work together to make Queensland homes and communities safer for all children and their families. More background detail is available on injury, injury prevention and safety promotion from the definitions page.
Young children aged less than 4 years old are at a greater risk of being hospitalised due to injury than all other age groups. Injury is also a leading cause of death in these children. Young children are at a particular risk of injury because they are "... more vulnerable to forces on their body than are adults ... live in a world designed for adults and are not always able to judge the potential hazards of many situations and products [1].
Injuries are not "accidents"
The word accident has several meanings including:
Injuries are not accidents, or an inevitable and unavoidable part of life as the causes can be identified and the events leading up to the injury can also be foreseen. Therefore by definition, injuries can usually be predicted and should not be regarded as accidents.
In order to stop children from being hurt we need to know:
To be successful in preventing child injuries, work needs to address wholistically issues about the child, the injury event, the environment, the product and the systems in our society and respond to these issues using a combination of sustained strategies extending from prior to the injury event, during the event to following the injury event (ie. Haddon's Matrix).
Additionally, there are a number of other theories and models that can be used in injury prevention including:
Effective child injury prevention using any of these theories or models still requires the use of a systematic project management approach to ensure planning for quality implementation and monitoring including pre-empting potential threats or risks that could jeopardise success.
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