Know Injury eNews April 2020

Our offices may be closed, but we're still here for you.

We are delivering our same services, some slightly modified, to support you and the injury prevention community.

We are treating the current situation seriously and are taking the necessary steps to keep our team, clients and community safe, as well as to ensure continued delivery of our  programs and services to our clients and the community.

Our team is equipped and operational to work from home. We can be reached through all the regular channels.

READ | Promoting Safety and Preventing Injury for Local Governments Guide

Are you looking to review or commence development of your Local Government Public Health Plan?

Injury Matters have developed a guide to support Local Government strategic planning to address local community health needs through the prevention of injury and promotion of safety. The guide:

• Outlines how injury prevention and safety promotion can be considered in Public Health Plans; 
• Outlines how to determine local injury priorities;
• Suggests objectives and activities that can be included to address specific injury topics;
• Provides injury specific resources and grants; and
• Outlines agencies that can support the implementation of injury activities with Local Government.

READ | Know Injury Firearm-Related Injury Fact Sheet

This sheet provides context and suggestions to reduce firearm-related harm in WA and Australian communities. For more information or ways to get involved visit https://www.gunsafetyalliance.org.au/

If you, or someone you care about is in danger and you think immediate action is needed, call the police immediately on 000.

Alternatively, if there is no immediate danger, contact a 24 hour support service, such as: Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 224 636)

KNOW | How We Can Support You

No matter where you are on your planning journey, Injury Matters' Know Injury program can assist you by providing items such as advice, data analysis, planning, monitoring and evaluation. 

Our team, using the Know Learn Connect approach, can assist your organisation or group to know injury in your area, learn how to reduce injury incidents, and connect you with other organisations to prevent injury.

WEBINAR | Domestic and Family Violence Response Webinar

More information coming soon on this great webinar!

DATE Tuesday 5th May
TIME 9am - 11am

WEBINAR | Domestic and Family Violence in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities

Join Know Injury for a webinar on Domestic and Family Violence in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities. A presentation will be provided by Elizabeth Lang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Diversity Focus.

DATE Tuesday 12th May 2020
TIME 10am - 11am

WEBINAR | Hospitalised Sports Injuries in Australia

Join Know Injury for the Hospitalised Sports Injuries in Australia webinar.  A presentation will be provided by Dr Sarah Harris, Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP) at Edith Cowan University, who will discuss the findings from the Australian Institute Health and Welfare Report Hospitalised Sports Injury in Australia, 2016-17, with a focus on head injuries.

 DATE Wednesday 20th May
TIME 10am - 11am

For more information about upcoming training opportunities visit the Know Injury website here.
 

CONNECT.ed

Networking shouldn’t be hard work, CONNECT.ed is a networking tool that takes the work out of networking for people working within health, community safety or injury prevention. By registering as a participant, users will be matched every two months and are encouraged to organise a quick chat with their match.

CONNECT.ed | Meet Sarah Harris!

Sarah Harris is a member of CONNECT.ed; she has completed a PhD at The University of Notre Dame (exploring injuries in particular concussion, and depressive symptom outcomes in semi-professional Australian footballers), and is the Sports Medicine Australia Chair of WA State Council.

How would you describe your role?

I am a post-doctoral research fellow with the Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sports and its Prevention (ACRISP) based at Edith Cowan University. This role involves designing research projects to assess and reduce injury burden in the community.

How do you see injury prevention evolving in Australia over the next five years?

I feel we will see a greater shift to utilising online platforms for delivering health promotion and injury prevention messages.  The current pandemic is forcing a lot of people and businesses to quickly adapt to online communication (social media, face-time, telehealth) and once they’re established, I can see these platforms continuing into the future. This could see the injury prevention message delivered with almost an endless reach to a mass diverse audience for a low cost price. I hope this may bridge the physical distance with our regional communities who have access to technology and create a wider network working together towards improving health outcomes and delivering the National Injury Prevention strategy.

From a research perspective, in the next five years I would love to see more data online, with improvements to the quality and access to national collaborative databases. This would allow for change to be measured closer to real-time, rather than basing our future planning in statistics from five or more years prior. 

Have you visited regional WA? If so, what is your favourite place and why?

I have been fortunate to travel to a fair few regional places in WA. My favourite place is Exmouth. I love everything about the ocean. There is nothing better than spending a whole day pre-sunrise to sunset walking incredible beaches, swimming, snorkelling, fishing and finding mud crabs.

What is the biggest challenge you see facing injury prevention?

If you had of asked me this question 6-months ago, I am sure my answer would have been quite different. The ramifications of COVID-19 is likely to change the financial and focus of injury prevention.

Non-COVID related, I think we will see concussion in sport and in the community, continue to emerge as a prominent point of discussion. This will be a challenging injury to address as prevention is the obvious answer in preventing long-term negative outcomes, but what this would look like is unknown. 

Join CONNECT.ed to network with Sarah and other peers working to create a safer WA.