A Passion for Reducing Injuries

Sally Fogerty is passionate about helping children reach their full potential. Her strategy is straightforward: preventing childhood injuries. As the new director of the Children’s Safety Network at EDC, she and her team assist state health departments across the country as they develop injury and violence prevention programs.

How did you get into injury prevention?

In my work at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health I learned that many children are at risk of injuries. For instance they could fall down a flight of stairs in their home or out an open window on the second floor. And if parents did simple things like put up a gate on the stairs or install window guards, injury risk was greatly lowered, which also reduced the likelihood of disability and premature death.

What is the cost of injuries on our health care system?

Injuries are a significant cost. They are a major reason that people of any age will require significant care and services. Nine years ago I was doing a comprehensive review of Medicaid data in Massachusetts and discovered that an injury was typically the reason that people ended up in long-term care or assisted living. Usually if they had a disease they could still live in the community, but if they had an injury from a car accident or a fall, they needed longer care. If we want to reduce the burden on the health care system then we have to prevent injuries.

What is the biggest challenge with injury prevention?

We know a great deal about how to reduce the risk of injuries, but one of the biggest challenges is getting this information out to people and encouraging them to make a change that becomes a part of their everyday life. For instance, how do we make sure all homeowners have smoke alarms and then regularly check the alarms to be sure they are working correctly? Just doing this can help to reduce injuries and deaths from fires.

State health departments are an important route for getting this information out to local communities. They know best how to convey it to the communities in their state.

What is the role of CSN—Children’s Safety Network?

CSN is a national resource center that assists states with developing effective injury prevention programs. Our newly designed website is the hub of our outreach efforts. Each state has a web page with specific information to help health department staff quickly see the incidence and cost of injuries in their state, and what types of injury program activities are currently going on there and in other states.

The data analysis section of the website is especially useful to state programs. For example, injury-related data compiled by the CSN provided one state Health Department with information requested by the legislature on the cost effectiveness of child restraints. These data were invaluable in passing new child safety seat legislation in that state.

In these rough financial times, resources like our cost-benefit data analyses can help states make the case for continued funding of childhood injury and violence prevention programs which is vital to creating an environment in which children are safe and free from injury.