The javascript used on this site for creative design effects is not supported by your browser. Please note that this will not affect access to the content on this web site.
Skip Navigation
H H S Department of Health and Human Services
Health Resources and Services Administration
Maternal and Child Health

A-Z Index  |  Questions?  |  Order Publications

  • Print this
  • Email this

Injury & Violence Prevention and Safety Promotion

Injuries are the leading public health threat facing people aged 1-44 years today. More children and adolescents die from injuries and violence than all diseases combined, and injuries are the leading cause of disability. Every year, one in four children and adolescents are injured seriously enough to require medical attention, and more than 430,000 are hospitalized for their injuries. Injuries are also a leading cause of medical spending for children and adolescents. During the past four decades, researchers have made significant progress toward identifying causes of infant, child, and adolescent injuries as well as developing ways to prevent them.

HRSA promotes infant, child and adolescent safety through training and technical assistance to States and other organizations and assures that appropriate, evidence-based resources are available to assist in prevention efforts across diverse environments.

Title V Programs

State Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Programs address two injury and violence-related performance measures:

1. The rate of deaths to children aged 14 years and younger caused by motor vehicle crashes per 100,000 children.

2. The rate (per 100,000) of suicide deaths among youths aged 15 through 19.

This program aims to improve infant, child, and adolescent health and safety services and systems and, ultimately, the health and safety status of infants, children, and adolescents through promoting the application of data-driven, evidence-based strategies in protecting infants, children, and adolescents from harm.

The program serves a variety of audiences: state and local MCH agencies and organizations, related public health, education, and safety organizations, and other youth-serving professionals and administrators with injury and violence prevention and safety promotion.

The program reaches its target populations through two national Child and Adolescent Injury and Violence Prevention Resource Centers.

Children’s Safety Network National Resource Center

Children’s Safety Network (CSN) National Resource Center helps States and localities plan, implement, strengthen, and evaluate injury and violence prevention programs. CSN provides technical support for maternal and child health programs which have identified injury and violence-related priority areas through a needs assessment. The Center also supports the development, implementation and evaluation of injury and violence prevention activities identified through many pathways, including State Technical Assessment Team (STAT) visits performed by the Safe States Alliance and recommendations from State Child Death Review Team Annual Reports.

CSN provides information on evidence-informed practices, conducts literature searches, develops resource materials, provides multi-State and State-specific technical assistance based upon state-specific injury data, and performs analyses of the incidence and costs of injuries and violence.

National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Death

The National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Death improves and strengthens State and local capacity to perform Child Death Reviews, develop prevention-oriented recommendations and translate those recommendations to local policies and programs. CDR is a community-based action process aimed at guiding communities to identify and solve problems contributing to poor child and adolescent health outcomes. Specifically, using death as a sentinel event, CDR is the systematic examination of factors that play a role in death which integrates information about the health, safety and personal characteristics of individuals, families, the community environment, and information descriptive of medical care and community health and social/welfare systems. Information from CDR reviews is then used to focus planning and policy development, to improve health and safety systems, and to enhance efforts to develop and maintain risk reduction and prevention programs for children and adolescents. CDR is being used as a model to better define the environmental factors around all child deaths and lead the way for future interventions and enables local communities to define local prevention priorities. The Center’s methods include providing technical support and training to CDR coordinators and teams, as well as supporting States in the collection, analysis and application of CDR data.

 

Child Injury Prevention Tool- Selecting Best Practices Website: http://www.childinjuryprevention.org/