The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #64293

Wendy J. Jameson, MPH, MPP, California Health Care Safety Net Institute, 70 Washington Street, Suite 310, Oakland, CA 94607, 510-874-7102, wjameson@caph.org

Vehicle collisions are a leading cause of death and injury among children in California. In 1999, California's public hospitals treated as many as 3,000 children who had sustained injury in motor vehicle collisions. In the face of recent research showing that certain racial groups are at greater risk for motor vehicle injuries, public hospitals and health systems—which serve a patient population that is 76 percent non-white—undertook an effort to prevent motor vehicle deaths and injuries through the Child Passenger Safety Initiative.

This initiative was funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. Several state and local governmental and non-governmental institutions, including public hospitals and academic institutions, collaborated to plan, implement and evaluate the Child Passenger Safety Initiative. The Initiative spanned five counties throughout Northern, Southern and Central California.

With a goal of integrating child passenger safety into health care delivery, participating public hospital systems expanded and improved child passenger safety education efforts and developed innovative models for reaching low-income, culturally diverse families. Strategies included training medical providers, educating parents and caregivers, distributing free or low-cost child safety seats, and offering child safety seat inspections. Services targeted families using services at public hospitals and health systems and families and child welfare workers transporting foster children.

This presentation will cover: 1) challenges to and strategies for integrating child passenger safety into health care delivery systems; 2) effective approaches to collaboration to promote child passenger safety; and, 3) evaluation design and implementation.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to:
• Identify five potential partners for implementing a child passenger safety program in their community.
• Describe three challenges to integrating child passenger safety into health care delivery systems and discuss how those challenges could be addressed.
• Articulate the elements of successful partnerships in the promotion of child passenger safety education.
• Identify three challenges and three potential solutions in evaluating child passenger safety programs

Keywords: Injury Prevention, Public Hospitals

Related Web page: www.safetynetinstitute.org/aboutcpsi.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.