PRC Injury Prevention Project (IPP)

PRC Injury Prevention Project (IPP)

Principal Investigator: Linda J. Peñaloza, Ph.D.
Start and End Dates: 12/01/07– 06/30/08
Source of Funding: New Mexico Department of Health

Injuries are the leading cause of death for New Mexicans, ages 1-44. Each day in New Mexico, an average of nearly 5 people die from an injury, approximately 40 other New Mexicans are hospitalized, more than 705 are seen in emergency departments, and another 2,035 visit other health care facilities for treatment of their injuries. The estimated cost of injuries in New Mexico is over $4 billion annually.

Injuries exact a tremendous toll on our state’s families and our state’s resources. Most injuries can be prevented, however, by applying an evidence-based, comprehensive approach to injury prevention that focuses on promoting safe environments, safe products, and policies that encourage safe behaviors and practices.

In January 2007, the New Mexico Department of Health’s Injury and Behavioral Health Epidemiology Bureau contracted with the Prevention Research Center (PRC) to provide for capacity building and professional development in injury prevention for the staff of the NMDOH Office of Injury Prevention (OIP) and their community partners. This collaborative work involves:

Strategic Planning: The PRC is providing strategic planning expertise and facilitation for the development of a statewide injury prevention strategic plan. The process involves goal-setting, the development of objectives and strategies, and an implementation plan. The plan, incorporating the input of the OIP staff as well as a coalition of injury prevention practitioners from around the state, provides a strategy for increasing the effectiveness and impact of injury prevention programs and activities through community collaboration, capacity building, and action.

Technical Assistance : The PRC assists the OIP staff and their partners with developing, planning, and evaluating injury prevention programs and provides information and resource materials on evidence-based, effective injury prevention strategies. As part of this work, the PRC serves as the evaluator for an OIP initiative involving the Statewide Sexual Violence Primary Prevention Team. This project involves assessing the needs of sexual violence primary prevention programs in the state, providing recommendations for capacity building, and developing evaluation tools for use by local prevention programs. The PRC is also assisting the OIP staff with the development of community presentations, a website, and other public information tools to facilitate public access to injury prevention information.

Training: The PRC provides training on various topics including the strategic planning process, program planning, and evaluation. The PRC has also arranged for nationally renowned speakers in the injury prevention field to provide presentations and workshops for OIP staff and their community partners.

Resource Directory: The PRC is working with the OIP staff and their partners on the development of an online resource inventory of injury prevention programs, activities, and legislation statewide. An online survey has been designed to collect data from injury prevention organizations and service providers. The data are entered into a user-friendly, searchable directory. The injury prevention community and the public will use the resource directory to identify organizations working on specific injury topics in particular geographic areas and retrieve information about injury prevention resources and legislation.

“If some infectious disease came along that affected children [in the way that injuries do], there would be a huge public outcry and we would be told to spare no expense to find a cure and to be quick about it.” Statement by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop before the Subcommittee on Children, Family, Drugs, and Alcoholism, U.S. Senate, February 9, 1989

For more information about this project, please contact
Susan DeFrancesco, (505) 272-4462
or SDeFrancesco@salud.unm.edu.