Abstract
For the last 20 years injury prevention policy in Australia has been hampered by poor consultation practices, limited stakeholder involvement, inadequate allocation of resources, poor implementation, and an absence of performance measures. This paper describes the development of injury prevention policy in Australia from its beginnings in 1981 to the current day and considers what measures should be undertaken to create an effective platform for the reduction of the burden of injury in Australia.The National Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Plan 2004–2014, released in 2005, needs to be supported by a whole of government commitment to the reduction of injury. The Council of Australian Governments would be an ideal forum to monitor progress, supported by a cross-government Ministerial Council.
Highlights
7,800 Australians die each year from injury [1]
We describe the critical features of the period of national injury prevention policy development since the Better Health Commission report of 1986, and argue that low levels of community participation and inadequate government commitment to implementation has compromised the effectiveness of this policy
We conclude that unless there is a genuine cross sectoral involvement in an adequately resourced whole of government commitment to implementing the National Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Plan 2004–2014 this healthbased national injury prevention policy will have no impact on the population level indicators of injury in Australia
Summary
7,800 Australians die each year from injury [1]. Evidence suggests that there are $1.3 trillion of potential health gains to be made from reducing injuries alone [2]. In NSW, the NSW Swimming Pool Act 1992 and its associated Regulation 1998 are enforced by the NSW Department of Local Government; safe boating is regulated by NSW Maritime and the NSW Water Police; the promotion of water and surf safety is conducted by the NSW Department of Sport and Recreation, Surf Life Saving, Royal Life Saving, Austswim, and the Australian and Professional Ocean Lifeguards Association (APOLA); rural water safety and dam safety is promoted by Farmsafe NSW and WorkCover NSW; and medical retrieval and hospital care is provide by the NSW Ambulance Service, the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, and the NSW Department of Health If all of these agencies in only one state represent different facets of only one injury area, how should injury prevention efforts be structured at a national level for the best and most cost effective results?. If the National Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Plan 2004–2014 [21] is to lead to a decrease in the incidence of injury similar effort needs to be mounted for non-transport related injury
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