Development of community safety promotion with an injury surveillance program based on the intersectral collaboration

Abstract

One of the six indicators for the “International Safe Communities” is that the community has programs that document the frequency and causes of injuries. In Kameoka city, the first safe community, in Japan, a research committee started its activity on injury surveillance program. Though many official public statistics were available on injuries, such as vital statistics (mortality), police survey, and fireman survey, in Japan, they do not show the frequency and causes of mild injuries. Therefore, the committee started the injury surveillance program. The data were collected from injury case reports of 4 hospitals and 17 clinics in Kameoka from May, 2007 to the end of April, 2008. When the injury surveillance program was started, many different cross- sectional groups supported the program: they were the police and fireman section as well as the public health center, the medical association and the dental association in the city. These results suggest that Kameoka city could have another indicator for the “International Safe Communities.” It is an infrastructure based on partnership and collaborations, governed by a cross- sectional group that is responsible for safety promotion in the community.