Prevention
Did You Know?
In the 1980s Federal agencies and national organizations began calling for a coordinated approach to reduce the number of injury related deaths and disabilities that occur each year. The Injury in America: A Continuing Public Health Problem report published in 1985 by the National Academy of Sciences provided a foundation and plan for addressing this societal issue.1
The report also outlined three major strategies for reducing injuries:
persuade persons at risk to alter their behavior (e.g., educating about the need for seat belt usage);
require individuals to change their behavior by law or administrative rules (e.g., mandating seat belt usage through law); and
provide automatic protection by product and environmental design (e.g., installing seat belts that automatically encompass occupants).
Proponents of injury prevention have endorsed the same public health approaches to prevent injuries that have been used to prevent disease, such as:
- carefully describing the problem through surveillance;
- studying factors that increase or decrease risk of injury;
- designing and evaluating intervention strategies that target these risk factors; and
- taking steps to ensure that proven strategies are implemented in communities nationwide.
As called for in the 1985 Injury In America report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention merged existing programs to form the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in 1993. Other Federal agencies involved in injury prevention include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Department of Labor. These agencies set national policies to address injury prevention, as well as administer funds to States and local communities to develop and implement prevention programs and strategies.
Click here to order a copy of our latest "Guide to State Government Brain Injury Policies, Funding and Services" to learn more about Medicaid waivers and other State systems components.
Resources
NHTSA’s Motorcycle Helmet Use Law Web Page
U.S. CPSC's Which Helmet for Which Activity? [PDF 481 KB]
