The injury field's perception of the role of intentionality in injury data and prevention evolved enormously between 1994 and 1999. In 1997, CDC published a "recommended framework" for presenting injury data using the intent/mechanism matrix. In 1999, an Institute of Medicine panel confirmed the usefulness of linking injury and violence. DHHS coordinated the development of Healthy People 2010, which combined "Injury and Violence". However, it assigned suicide to the "Mental Health & Mental Disorders" chapter. The potential advantage of linking injury and violence lies in forging public health and criminal justice collaboration to meet objectives. There are precedents. NHTSA's use of information from police records to build its FARS data base has provided injury researchers with a value source of data on deaths and injuries due to traffic crashes; its CODES project is developing valuable experience linking police and health data. New efforts to link health and criminal justice data on firearm injuries and deaths hold great promise. Unfortunately, funding streams and agency-driven program goals still make true programmatic collaboration difficult. However, significant gains have been made in some areas, as for example, by Justice and Health in using "Violence Against Women" funds to prevent partner violence and sexual assault. There is significant disadvantage in separating suicide from injury, particularly as there is no attention to mechanism of injury in the suicide chapter or related objectives. Thus, the injury field must actively recruit mental health workers to collaborate on prevention strategies directed at the mechanism of self-inflicted injury.
Learning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Injury Prevention, Suicide
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.