Spotlight on the States
Spotlight on the States highlights activities addressing child and adolescent injuries, such as child maltreatment, rural and agricultural injuries, and traffic injuries - as well as programmatic issues, such as data collection and analysis, program planning, and evaluation. If your program is engaged in an effort that would make a good Spotlight, please send a short description of this effort and your contact information (so we can call you for additional information) to Erin Lyons. Thank you.
Preventing Bullying in Virginia, March, 2008
The Virginia Office of Family Health Services is using funds from the MCH Block Grant and a ESCAPE Grant from the CDC to expand the use of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in elementary and middle schools across the Commonwealth. The Office of Family Health Services and its partners are currently providing resources and technical assistance to Olweus programs in 45 schools – in an effort that is reaching more than 40,000 students.
Screening for Domestic Violence in Massachusetts, January, 2008
The Massachusetts Division of Violence and Injury Prevention is working to protect women and children using DV SCRIP (Domestic Violence Screening, Care, Referral, and Information Project), a program created in response to a need identified while developing the Massachusetts Title V Needs Assessment. DV SCRIP is now being used by a number of units in the Bureau of Family and Community Health (Massachusetts’ maternal and child health agency) to train staff to identify and help victims of intimate partner violence.
Traumatic Loss Coalitions, September, 2007
In 1995, after a tragic year in which eight children and a teacher died by suicide, the Mercer County (New Jersey) Traumatic Loss Coalition (TLC) was created to respond to distressing events, including suicides. The project was funded by the Division of Family Health Services (New Jersey’s Title V agency). Title V support for this project proved critical in developing a model which is now used in all 21 of New Jersey’s counties.
Using a Memorandum of Understanding to Promote Injury Prevention, June, 2007
Washington State’s Maternal & Child Health, Emergency Medical Services & Trauma Systems, and Environmental Health & Safety Offices recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help sustain and formalize their collaboration on injury and violence prevention activities, develop a state injury prevention plan, and raise the profile of injury and violence prevention activities.
Integrating Injury Prevention into an Adolescent Health Initiative, January, 2007
West Virginia’s Office of Maternal, Child, and Family Health’s Adolescent Health Initiative is furthering its mission to promote physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual well-being for children and youth while also addressing injury prevention challenges identified by that state’s Title V. Block Grant Needs Assessment.
Informing Injury Prevention Policy, November, 2006
The experience of the New Mexico Office of Injury Prevention demonstrates how a state public health department can inform state injury prevention policy by bringing science and data to policymakers. This experience also reveals the power of information on the public costs of injuries to clarify the consequences of proposed injury prevention legislation.
A Health Department/College Partnership to Prevent Injuries through a Social Marketing Campaign, October, 2006
An innovative partnership in Massachusetts provided the participants in Emerson College’s Summer Institute on Social Marketing with a “real world” need for a social marketing campaign, while supplying the Injury Prevention and Control Program of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health with expertise and ideas for an upcoming social marketing campaign to prevent falls among the elderly.
Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Heath, August, 2006
Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health (WISH) is an online system that allows users to generate statistics on a variety of health indicators, including deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits due to injuries. WISH helped change the way local public health practitioners in Wisconsin look at injuries.
Keeping Kids Safe Conference, June, 2006
Keeping Kids Safe is an annual state injury prevention conference that gives injury prevention practitioners a chance to hear national speakers and attend trainings and workshops without the expense of traveling to a national meeting. It also brings together these practitioners with state decision-makers and advocates. Keeping Kids Safe also features an evening session at which child care providers receive safety training.
California Local Public Health and the Built Environment Network, May, 2006
In California, the Local Public Health and the Built Environment (LPHBE) Network is helping public health practitioners learn to speak the language and understand the world of transportation planners, community development agencies, and land-use committees and articulate their common interests in modifying the built environment in ways that make it safer – and more attractive – to walk and bicycle.
Alabama Child Death Review System, April, 2006
The Alabama Child Death Review System (ACDRS) is a paradigm of how injury data can be used to guide and motivate prevention activities. The ACDRS State Office is located in the Alabama Department of Public Health Bureau of Family Health Services (Alabama’s Title V Agency). ACDRS data analysis and policy recommendations have supported important injury-prevention legislation and been used to create programs to prevent SIDS, suicide, and injuries associated with all-terrain vehicles.
Connecticut Young Worker Safety Team, March, 2006
The Connecticut Department of Public Health and its partners in the Connecticut Young Worker Safety Team are addressing the often-overlooked problem of injuries to working teens. Members of the Young Worker Safety Team are training teachers, school-to-work staff, job training instructors, and other adults who work with teens to use Work Safe! - a curriculum that teaches teens to identify and control workplace hazards and to assert their rights to safe and legal working conditions.
Preventing Youth Suicide in Oregon, January, 2006
Oregon’s Connecting Youth project identifies and provides services to children and adolescents who have attempted suicide. The project is being carried out by the Oregon Department of Human Service’s Injury Prevention and Epidemiology Section with funding from the Northwest Health Foundation.
Promoting Booster Seats in Colorado, December, 2005
The Colorado Department of Health and Environment and its partners are using a CDC grant to evaluate a strategy to promote child passenger booster seats. The project targets child care center owners – many of whom opposed a new state law that requires children 4 and 5 years of age to use booster seats. The project is also reaching parents through child care centers.
Preventing Child Sexual Abuse in Virginia, November, 2005
The Virginia Department of Health uses an existing national helpline and a public education campaign to prevent child sexual abuse and provide Virginians with access to an innovative prevention strategy as well as local resources and referrals.
Promoting E-codes in Minnesota, October, 2005
The Minnesota Department of Health uses trainings, conferences, and a "pocket card" to encourage health care providers to include External Cause of Injury (E) Codes in their medical records.
