Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre
The Royal Children's Hospital Safety Centre

Name of the Support Centre: The Royal Children's Hospital Safety Centre
Country: Australia
Number of inhabitants: Australia: 20.23 million; Victoria 4.99 million; Melbourne 3.7 million
Programme started year: The Centre was established in 1979; the SAFE program started in 1991
Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre: Designation year: 1999
Info address on www for Organisation: www.rch.org.au/safetycentre
Info address on www for the institution: www.rch.org.au/safetycentre

For further information contact:

Barbara Minuzzo
Senior Project Coordinator
Safety Centre
The Royal Children's Hospital
Flemington Road
Parkville Vic 3052
Tel: +613 9345 5786
Fax: + 613 9345 5086
Email: Barbara.Minuzzo@rch.org.au
Web www.rch.org.au/safetycentre

The Safety Centre’s mission is to reduce injury mortality and morbidity by supporting communities to improve health, safety and well-being.
The Centre’s objective is to continue to be a leader in the provision of quality child safety promotion services that meet the needs of all.
This includes collaborative initiatives, community consultation and support, advocacy, education and the provision of resources to enhance support and meet the needs of those working within local communities and with minority groups.

1) The provision of Centre programs and services utilize multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches.

The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Safety Program

The RCH Safety Program is a cross-sectoral group of Royal Children’s Hospital department members who with their combined expertise undertake research grant work and contracts.
This Program also functions as a reference group to support and provide guidance with intervention initiatives for unintentional injuries. This has been most beneficial in the development of strategic plans and program development.

The RCH Safety Program provides additional expertise in the guiding principles of injury prevention and safety promotion; a sound understanding of educational principles for the development of various training resources; and expertise in the interpretation and application of research data.

The RCH Safety Program was formed in 2001 and continues to meet regularly to ensure hospital departments work collaboratively towards their goal to reduce mortality and morbidity due to injury. Active participants of the RCH Safety Program include:
• RCH Safety Centre
• Centre for Community Child Health - Research Unit
• Centre for Community Child Health - Education Unit
• RCH Emergency Department
• Pharmacy Department – Poisons Information Centre
• RCH Education Institute
• RCH Community Division Directors.

The Child and Youth Injury Prevention Alliance (CYIPA)

CYIPA was formed in 2001 and brings together the Royal Children’s Hospital Safety Program, the Monash University Accident Research Centre and Kidsafe Victoria.
CYIPA was established to strengthen collaborative action between the three peak bodies in Victoria providing services in injury prevention.

CYIPA objectives include:
• Injury Prevention:
- Establish a broad-based collaboration on child injury research and
prevention that harnesses the intellectual capital and capacity of the three organisations
• Advocacy:
- Provide leadership in the field of child injury prevention
- Broaden the base of support for child injury prevention initiatives in Victoria
- Develop a planned approach and present a consensus voice on child injury issues to government and the community via the media
- Place emerging issues in child injury on the agendas of government and the community
- Shape government priorities and inform decision-making.

• Information sharing and a co-ordinated response:
- Share information on current and planned activities of member organisations
- Co-ordinate responses to new opportunities in the areas of child injury research and prevention
- Adopt a consensus approach to seeking new sponsorship and funding opportunities

Two recently successful CYIPA submissions include- -
• Child Unintentional Poisoning Interventions: Improving the Uptake of Safety Practices project
• Safe Start: Education, Awareness and Evaluation project

1) The Centre provides a framework for promoting collective action, which includes involvement with community networks.

Victorian Safe Communities Network (VSCN)

The Centre was a founding member of the VSCN and continues to have an on-going involvement in the Victorian Safe Communities Network. The Safety Centre participates actively in the Network, including membership of the executive committee since 1996.
This participation provides a major source of support for community-based workers especially in local government, who consult the Centre and the VSCN for information and advice.

From mid 2003 the Safety Centre has provided the Secretariat for the VSCN by -
• Assisting the Network as the ‘first port of call’ for referral of stakeholders to information on the VSCN, primarily the website; responding to enquiries by email, phone, mail or fax.
• Acting as the registered address for the Network and disseminating mail
• Hosting and maintaining the VSCN website
• Maintaining the Network’s membership list and contact database
• Distributing information, reminders and notices to the members including notification of functions and dates
• Attending VSCN Executive meetings and undertaking associated tasks

Each year the Safety Centre hosts a VSCN quarterly seminar and is an active member of the planning committee and presenter for the annual VSCN Conference.

RCH Safety Centre and Kidsafe

Kidsafe Victoria is a not for profit independent organisation. The Royal Children’s Hospital Safety Centre and Kidsafe operate independently of each other but share considerable similarities in their respective goals and activities.
In 2002 Kidsafe and the RCH Safety Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding and established a Committee of Management to develop a process in which the two organisations can assert a common child and adolescent injury prevention strategy and program. Since this agreement Kidsafe has co-located with the Safety Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

This strengthens the ties between the two organisations and permits them to share resources in an environment in which funding for child injury prevention infrastructure costs is difficult to find.

3) The Centre provides consultative support to communities in the establishment of Safe Community initiatives.

The SAFE START Program

The Safety Centre is part of the training, consultation and on-going support for three municipalities working in community partnerships towards targeted reductions in child injuries. This was a state government initiative funded by the Department of Human Services. This project focused on the prevention of unintentional injuries in children by supporting the development of initiatives within local government communities.

(a) The City of Greater Dandenong
This program involved using a multicultural peer education model embracing the Arabic, Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese communities.
The Community Development Officer worked in partnership with community agencies towards a sustainable model using a multi-disciplinary approach.
The program recruited and trained peer educators. Awareness raising strategies included community displays, child safety education sessions and communicating child safety messages through photographs.

(b) City of Ballarat
The aims of the project were to:
• Enhance safety in public housing
• Increase awareness of home safety for public housing tenants
• Reduce childhood injuries in the home
• Reduce the impact of unintentional injuries on the health system
• Educate and train public housing staff regarding home and property safety.

Strategies involved structural and behavioural approaches including auditing of all properties in the community estate, the installation of safety products to enhance safety and access to child safety education and first aid training for residents.

(c) Shire of Yarra Ranges
The key objective of this project was to develop and train community working groups to implement strategies and engage the community in injury prevention.

Strategies included:
• Provision of a revised maternal and child health information package
• Sponsorship and provision of safety products
• Community information sessions
• First aid courses
• Development of child safety kits.

Telephone Advisory Service

The Safety Centre provides a full time telephone advisory service to the public. The majority of clients are health professionals seeking advice, resources or support for community intervention initiatives.
In 2003 the Safety Centre and the Safety Shop completed over 15,000 requests for information.

Directory of Organisations and Contacts in Safety Promotion

The Safety Centre has compiled a Directory of Organisations and Contacts in Safety Promotion primarily for health professionals, teachers, students and community resource workers. The Directory provides a comprehensive and regularly updated listing by subject of injury prevention organisations and contacts.
The Directory of Organisations guides and supports health professionals undertaking Safe Community initiatives by facilitating access to programs, information, websites, resources and displays, educational resources for children, adolescents and adults and safety products. The Directory is available on the Centre’s website.

Consultations for Health Professionals

The Safety Centre welcomes health professionals working in injury prevention. Individual advice and support for local community projects is available by appointment. A reference library housing textbooks and a wide range of journal articles is accessible with adjacent copying facilities, as well as many resources.

Community outreach workers, early intervention support staff and government case workers supporting families with special needs, as well as high risk and vulnerable groups are also assisted individually by appointment.

4) The Centre facilitates and supports community-based strategic planning processes.

The Safety Centre has been represented on numerous forums and participated in consultation processes including:
• The 2004 Victorian Multicultural Commission and Metropolitan Fire Brigade forum to explore issues and strategies within multicultural communities
• Active membership of the City of Melbourne Injury Prevention Advisory Committee since its inception some years ago
• Active membership of the ‘Public Health Group Department of Human Services Injury Prevention Week’ working party since 2002
• Active membership of the ‘Multicultural Safety Forum’ working group, with the Department of Justice since 2003
• Consultancy support to the Department of Human Services and City of Hume “Guide to Baby Safety Video” development group 2003
• Providing feedback and support to the City of Boorondara developing the ‘Home Safety Kit’ booklet 2003.

5) The Centre demonstrates leadership and stewardship in addressing priority injury issues, high risk, and vulnerable groups.

The SAFE Program 1991-2001
A Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities Peer Education Program

The Safety Centre is highly regarded throughout Australia as a leader in English and non-English safety education. The Safety Centre has researched, developed, implemented and evaluated a range of community education initiatives for high-risk groups including young children, older people and people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In 1991 the Safety Centre initiated the SAFE (Safe Accident-Free Environment) program.
This program was initially designed to meet the needs of low-income and non-English speaking communities. Using the peer education model and a community development approach, the program delivered injury prevention to communities in their own first language.
The thirteen trained peer educators conducted safety promotion, education sessions and media campaigns for the Royal Children’s Hospital, VicRoads and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. The peer educators worked within their own community, presenting in their first language including Greek, Somali, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Macedonian, Maltese, Croatian, Serbian, Shuluk, Italian, Iraqi/Lebanese.
Another primary focus for the peer educators was to initiate environmental change by educating community residents and to work collaboratively with residents and key government bodies to execute broader changes in the community.

2001-2002
Working with Peer Educators in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities to Promote Injury Prevention

This innovative injury prevention program involved thirteen Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) peer educators.
The aim of this program was to increase the capacity for the effectiveness of health promotion in the area of injury prevention in local Victorian CALD communities; also to equip peer educators to be able to develop and deliver an injury prevention project for the specific needs of the CALD communities. The program delivered a comprehensive training package for CALD peer educators in injury prevention project design, implementation and evaluation; then provided small grants to design, implement and evaluate injury prevention projects in CALD communities. The projects undertaken in the thirteen CALD communities included Home and Fire Safety, Poisoning Prevention, Falls in Older People and Improving Safety for Older Drivers.
The evaluation of the program indicated that the training component for the peer educators and the identification and implementation of projects in their communities by the peer educators were beneficial for all participants.

2003 Collaborative Partnerships to Promote Safety in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Communities Media Campaign

This Program also followed the peer educator model in four different languages and included collaborative work with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Emergency Services, the Victoria Police Community and Cultural Division.
The focus of this program was to communicate to non-English speaking communities
and then implement emergency strategies when help is urgently required.
The outcome following the dissemination of the key safety messages was positive with a broader approach adopted across all age groups. The face-to-face meetings were invaluable in obtaining community support and conveying key messages and printed material in their own language.

VicRoads and the Safety Centre Road Safety Project

During 2003 the Safety Centre and VicRoads again conducted multi-lingual road safety campaigns. These included the development of culturally specific multi-lingual child restraint information and multi action pedestrian safety programs for children and the elderly.
Eight posters were developed to promote safety messages related to child restraints for each multicultural community.
The posters consisted of photographs of children in four different types of car restraints demonstrating the different age groups and weights and included a translated message.
An English translation of the message was printed on the reverse side of each poster.
Copies of the posters were then distributed to the multicultural networks, libraries, childcare centres, and maternal and child health nurses.
The following languages were targeted: Somalian Spanish Turkish Cantonese Vietnamese Arabic Mandarin and Croatian. The reason for selecting these languages was based on the new arrivals into Australia and the birth rate within these cultural groups.

6) The Centre provides expert services and knowledge in the area of injury data and injury surveillance issues.

In 2001 the Centre for Community Child Health, the RCH Safety Centre and the University of Melbourne authored the publication “Evidence-Based Health Promotion: Child Injury Prevention. This valuable and informative document is available on the Internet at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/phd/0103075

The Safety Centre provides expert services and knowledge in the area of injury data and injury surveillance issues, ensuring all work undertaken is evidence-based and achievable.
At the commencement of all projects or resource development, the Safety Centre researches and reviews the data. The systematic approach for injury prevention and safety promotion is then applied, incorporating the guiding principles for injury prevention. These principles include epidemiology, evidence, education, engineering, enforcement and evaluation. These principles work most effectively in combination wherever applicable.

The RCH Safety Program staff expertise in data and surveillance also supports the Safety Centre.
• The RCH Emergency Department and the RCH Health Information Services provide data and injury surveillance to the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) Victorian Injury Surveillance and Applied Research (VISAR) System
• The RCH Pharmacy Department’s Victorian Poisons Information Centre provides data and analysis on all in-coming calls from the public.

The Safety Centre staff promotes the work of the Victorian Injury Surveillance and Applied Research System and recommends the VISAR publication “Hazard”, ensuring its availability to visiting professionals.

7) The Centre demonstrates a long-term commitment to supporting Safe Communities and the Safe Community Network within their organizations strategic plan.

Community Education Kits

In 2003 the Safety Centre was fortunate to receive considerable Esso and Mobil funding to support the building of safe communities promoting safe child environments. The project is designed in three stages and will provide community education kits to a total of 60 local municipalities who have met the application criteria.
In this way we will have identified, supported, resourced and helped develop community based safety demonstration and education sites for child injury prevention.

Phase 1
Communities were invited to apply for a community education kit by demonstrating an ability to meet the required criteria.
Funding received by the Safety Centre provided for 40 communities to be resourced with kits of significant value containing safety display material, safety messages, resources, parent handouts and home safety products such as stove guards, poisons cabinets, harnesses to prevent falls, various locks, a fire smothering cloth and a home safety video.
All the components and resources provided with the education kit will be evaluated rigorously.

Phase 2
On the results of the evaluation of phase 1, funding has been received for a further 20 education kits to be provided to communities. It is expected that these kits will be improved and further developed on the basis of the phase 1 evaluation.

Phase 3
The Safety Centre has made a commitment to continue to maintain, update and continue to resource the above communities.

Child Safety Handbook

In 2003 the Safety Centre signed a 4-year contract with a publisher to produce a book titled “Child Safety Handbook, a guide to injury prevention for parents of 6-12 year olds”.
In compiling the book the Safety Centre worked collaboratively with many organisations recognised for their expertise in each field. These organisations represented road safety, water safety, playground safety, sport and recreation, preventing skin cancer, rural and home fire safety, farm safety, venomous creatures, preventing dog bites, emergency first aid, protective behaviours and internet safety.
The content of the Child Safety Handbook has the approval of the Department of Education and Training, the Catholic Education Office and the Association of Independent Schools Victoria. The Handbook is evidence based and provides an excellent education tool for parents and teachers. Since publication the Safety Centre has been overwhelmed with requests for copies from both parents and the general community. Many service provider groups have requested bulk quantities to use as a training tool for staff, including those responsible for the care of children in school holiday programs and after school care.
Each year 65,000 copies will be produced and distributed free to every Victorian child in grade six.
The book is generously supported by local businesses that advertise within the book. In this way the project has provided significant funds to the Safety Centre to continue our work in promoting interventions to reduce unintentional injury.

Education Programs

The Safety Centre has been conducting education programs since its inception in 1979.
The Centre allocates time to education sessions each weekday to ensure the availability of such programs. In 2003 the Safety Centre conducted 60 education sessions.
The current focus includes information sessions for first time parents when their baby starts to become mobile and crawl; first aid courses (including an injury prevention component); workshops for child care students training for placement in childcare centres, early education centres and family day care; plus workshops for health professionals and teachers.

Production and Dissemination of Safety Centre Resource Material

The Safety Centre has been producing bulk quantities of parent resource material to support projects, community campaigns and local government initiatives since 1983.

• Esso and Mobil Fact Sheet Folders contain seventeen parent fact sheets focussing on injury prevention for 0-5 year olds. Topics include background and playground safety, pedestrian safety, car passenger safety, poisoning prevention, children and safety with pets, preventing falls, fire safety, sports and recreational safety, home safety, toy safety for pre-school, nursery furniture and safe sleeping, water safety, choking and suffocation, kitchen safety, farm safety, holiday safety and a home safety checklist.
These fact sheets will soon be available in ten languages.
244,000 information sheets have been distributed over the last two years.

• Dogs’n’Kids Program promoting responsible dog ownership, dog bite prevention and appropriate pet selection. This program has been available since 1999 and was revised in 2002. The information kit includes a booklet and poster for health professionals plus a brochure for parents. The brochures are also available in five community languages (Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish).

• The Growing Safely Poster
This poster was first produced in 1996 and was revised in 2004.The poster beautifully illustrates the developmental stages of children 0-5 years and continues to be in high demand. The accompanying safety messages provide timely reminders to parents of the developing abilities of children as they grow and the consequent exposure to risk.

• Displays and Videos for Loan to Community Groups

Displays for community based injury intervention initiatives are available for loan free of charge. These include the Hot Water Burns Like Fire multilingual pictorial display, the Dogs’n’Kids display and the Safety Centre Resources display.
Currently in production is a comprehensive five-part display covering all aspects of home safety. This will be available in six languages and is targeting low literacy and CALD communities.

The Home Safety Shop

The Royal Children’s Hospital Home Safety Shop has been a leader in safety product retail for more than 20 years. The shop is open weekdays 10-4pm. It provides a wide range of services: -

• Advisory service for safety products and their suitability
• Mail order service Australia wide and overseas
• Product displays and information in the retail showroom
• Safety products for sale include items for the kitchen and bathroom, various locks for cupboards and drawers, gates and barriers, electrical safety items, fire safety products, first aid kits, car safety accessories and helmets for outdoor activities.

8) The Centre supports those responsible at the community level to utilize appropriate indicators to evaluate community processes, effects of change and injury rates.

The Safety Centre participated in the “Safe Start: Education, Awareness and Evaluation” project (results about to be published). This project was an initiative of the Child and Youth Injury Prevention Alliance (CYIPA).
Throughout the implementation phase of the project the Safety Centre provided the central point for accessing support, advice and resources to the three funded local “Safe Start” communities. In each instance the parties utilised appropriate indicators to evaluate community processes, effects of change and injury rates.

The Safety Centre participated in the project “Child Unintentional Poisoning Interventions: Improving the Uptake of Safety Practices”.
This project was an initiative of the Child and Youth Injury Prevention Alliance (CYIPA).

Through linking with the Victorian Safe Communities Network and the Australian Injury Prevention Network, practitioners and researchers are encouraged to collaborate closely. This ensures that work on developing intervention strategies also provide learning opportunities through discussion forums, plus analysis and debate of outcomes and evaluation.

The Safety Centre also incorporates pre and post evaluation surveys with each education workshop presented. The outcome of this data ensures workshops are responsive and constantly improved to meet the demands of clients.

The Safety Centre collects data on all in-coming telephone advisory line calls. The data that we collect provides us with information on the responsiveness of our service; that the support and strategies offered are evidence based; and that the service is capable of appropriately resourcing the demand for support and advice.

In 2004 the Safety Centre is engaging a research consultant to rigorously evaluate its services.

9) The Centre disseminates their experiences both at national and international levels.

The Safety Centre regularly provides a consultancy service to health professionals visiting from within Victoria, interstate and overseas.

The Safety Centre Website provides access to the Centre resources.
In February 2004 there were 1,862 visits to the Safety Centre website.
The website resources include:
• A comprehensive Directory of Organisations and Contacts in Safety Promotion
• The seventeen Esso and Mobil parent fact sheets (also available soon in nine languages)
• The Dogs’n’Kids resource kit

International Support:

• The Safety Centre will be providing the majority funding to a Safety Program staff member to present a paper on “Unintentional Poisonings” at the up-coming conference in Vienna.
• The Safety Centre has submitted an abstract for the Prague conference and is currently negotiating attendance.
  

National Support:

• The Safety Centre is anticipating the presentation of a paper and poster display at the 2004 national conference.
  

10) The Centre reports on their Safe Community activities and research efforts.

Publications:

• " Child Safety Handbook. A Parents Guide to Injury Prevention for 6-12 year olds”
• The Safety Centre contributed to “Child Unintentional Poisoning Interventions” (paper to be presented in Vienna).
• The Safety Centre contributed to “Safe Start: Education, Awareness and Evaluation” project (results about to be published).
• In 2004 the Safety Centre is engaging a research consultant to rigorously evaluate its services. It is hoped this paper will be published and reported at conferences in 2005.
• The Safety Centre regularly contributes to:
  (i) The Australian Injury Prevention Network ‘Injury Incidence’
  (ii) The Department of Human Services ‘Human Services News’
  (iii) The Department of Human Services ‘Window of Opportunity’
  (iv) The Department of Human Services ‘Healthy Partnerships’
  (v) The Department of Justice, Emergency Management ‘EM Info’
  
  Information material:

• Esso and Mobil Fact Sheet Folders containing seventeen parent fact sheets
• Dogs’n’Kids Program promoting responsible dog ownership, dog bite prevention and appropriate pet selection.
• The Growing Safely Poster
  
  
  The staff members:

The staff members (left to right) are: Barbara Minuzzo, Helen Rowan, Mary Beech, Liz Young, Carol Anderson and Fiona Shields. The absent staff are Brenda Kittelty and Lisa Burke