The official newsletter of SMARTRISK
March - April 2012 |
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ABOUT HEADS UP!
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Heads Up! is the official newsletter of SMARTRISK, delivered six times per year.
If you wish to unsubscribe, please use the link at the bottom of this email. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your own copy, join our mailing list, above.
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Injury snapshot released for Ontario
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Suicide leading cause of death, falls close behind
|  The Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre, housed at SMARTRISK, has released what may be the most detailed injury snapshot ever prepared for the province of Ontario and its 36 public health units. Nearly two years in the making, the Ontario Injury Data Report will help injury prevention specialists pinpoint the most pressing injury needs in their local areas and compare injuries, broken down by cause and age, to provincial averages.
Media interest in the report has been widespread, with a number of news outlets analyzing their local data, comparing numbers to Ontario-wide figures and interviewing their local health officials about injury and their plans to address it. All public health units in Ontario have injury prevention as part of their mandate.
Included in the report are emergency room visits (a total of 2.3-million+ injury-related visits to Ontario ERs from 2007-2009); hospitalizations (120,000+ from 2007-2009); and deaths from injury (more than 18,000 in total from 2001-2005). Suicide was the leading cause of injury death in Ontario, then falls. For non-fatal injuries, however, falls were by far the leading cause, both for people ending up in emergency rooms and for being admitted to hospital. Visit the OIPRC website to read the report. |
It's your turn to be the judge
Distracted driving student PSAs await your votes
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 The 60 or so video entries are in, the panel of judges has
narrowed them down to the 15 most compelling and now it's your turn to help pick the winners. High school students from across Canada are competing in this contest to come up with the best public service announcement aimed at their peers on the theme of distracted driving. First place wins $3,000, second place $1,500 and third place $700. Thanks to the entrants for their hard work and interest and to State Farm for its sponsorship. Students who didn't get a chance to take part this year will be pleased to hear SMARTRISK will run another distracted driving PSA contest next year.
We invite you to vote up to once per day during the month of April at the campaign website. Not only will the winners receive recognition and prizes, SMARTRISK plans to professionally remake and produce one of the PSAs to use in its ongoing national distracted driving campaign. Drop by and see for yourself how creative Canada's high school students can be!
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| SNOWSMART aims to reduce injuries on ski hills | |
The skiers were in their shirt-sleeves on a balmy day at Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ont.,
as the backdrop to an official announcement on ski/snowboard safety by Canada's Minister of State for Sport, Bal Gosal. Mr. Gosal announced that the federal government will fund a $200,000 program to help reduce injuries among children and youth on Canada's ski hills. The need is clear: children aged 4 - 19 account for the highest incidence of injuries on ski hills. Collisions and falls account for most of their injuries and speed and loss of control are key risk factors.
The new program will see SMARTRISK join with partners, the Canadian Ski Patrol System and the Canadian Snowboard Federation, to implement an innovative social marketing campaign at five pilot ski hills next winter: Mount Sima in Yukon, Mount St. Louis and Brimacombe in Ontario, Poley in New Brunswick and Snow Valley in Alberta. The campaign will include a number of initiatives to reinforce the messages: posters and signage at the hill; a video public service announcement competition for young people (building on our successful video competition experience!); a positive reinforcement campaign that will hand out prizes to skiers and snowboarders "caught" doing the right thing; and the implementation of the PACE Penguin Children's Safety Program, which aims to make young child skiers more visible on the hill and to ensure skiers watch for them to avoid any collisions.
Look for us on the slopes next winter!
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