Injury Focus Areas Community Injury Prevention
In Kentucky, KIPRC’s Community Injury Prevention programs are working to make our state and communities safer places to live, work, and play. Injuries are when the human body is exposed to harm or functional impairment and can be unintentional (e.g., motor vehicle crashes and falls) or intentional (e.g., child maltreatment and suicide).
KIPRC’s Community Injury Prevention programs work to address the most pressing injury issues individuals face throughout their lifespan; our injury focus areas are identified through population-based data (e.g., death certificates and hospital discharge records).
We implement, evaluate, and promote strategies (i.e., education, policy, and evidence-based and –informed programs) with our community partners and coalitions in order to prevent injury and mitigate injury-related outcomes (e.g., deaths, emergency department visits, inpatient hospitalizations, and monetary costs) at the local and state levels.
Associated Programs
Kentucky Injury Surveillance Quality Improvement Program
The Kentucky Surveillance Quality Improvement (SQI) Program, along with similar programs in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Maryland, is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve our methodology for conducting injury surveillance.
Multistate projects include those seeking to validate traumatic brain injury and suicide/self-harm case definitions. Kentucky-specific projects include the validation of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th revision (ICD-10) O codes for injury during pregnancy.
Residential Fire Injury Prevention
This program works with fire departments, health departments, and other local agencies and service organizations to provide smoke alarms for low-income households as well as households with particularly vulnerable residents such as the very young, elderly, and those with disabilities.
KIPRC provides smoke alarms, fire safety education materials, and other required materials as well as training and technical support. The local agency provides paid or volunteer personnel who, after appropriate training, install smoke alarms in qualifying homes and provide basic fire safety education to the residents. Installers also perform a brief home safety check and provide the resident(s) with information about any hazards that were identified in their home. These services are provided without cost to recipients.
Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program
The Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program (KVIPP) supports the implementation and evaluation of several injury prevention programs, with priority focus given to the prevention of motor vehicle crashes, sexual assault/interpersonal violence, suicide, child maltreatment, traumatic brain injuries, older adult falls, residential fire injuries, adverse childhood experiences, child home injuries, and substance misuse.
Under KVIPP, Kentucky has a statewide injury and violence prevention plan as well as the injury community implementation group called Kentucky Safety and Prevention Alignment Network (KSPAN). KVIPP works with KSPAN partners to identify, support, and evaluate program and policy interventions within priority focus areas and collaborates with partners to inform policies and practices.
Pediatric and Adolescent Injury Prevention Program
The Kentucky Injury Prevention Research Center provides consulting services for the Department for Public Health’s Child Fatality Review and Injury Prevention Program, in addition to local injury prevention coalitions, safety advocacy groups and others who are working to address injury problems at the community level. The University of Kentucky provides expertise in pediatric injury prevention and surveillance from qualified staff, including a pediatrician specializing in injury prevention.