Safe Community Dungshr

Country: China (Province of Taiwan)
Number of inhabitants: 56,452
Programme started year: July 2002
International Safe Communities Network Membership: Designation year: 2005
Info address: www.fh.org.tw/tshpa/safedungshr/index.htm

The programme covers the following safety promotion activities:

For the age group

Children 0-14 years:
Primary injuries suffered by children ages 3 and under are suffocation, burn, and fall injuries, and most of which usually occur at home. The lack of child injury prevention consciousness of caregivers and poor protective measures employed are factors causing the repeated occurrences of child injuries. The right timing to teach safety awareness to children is at schooling age, and this safety awareness will set the foundation for the child’s future safety behavior. Hence, teaching safety education at school is a key factor for providing schoolchildren with the right safety consciousness.

Youth 15-24 years:
The primary cause of injury in this age group is vehicle accident. They usually occur after the youth has left school. The major causes of this problem are riding scooters without a license, over speeding, and traffic violations.

Adults 25-64 years:
Since farming is the main livelihood of the town, injuries in this age group are mainly tripping, fall, cutting and piercing accidents resulting from pesticide poisoning, farm equipment operation, and farm work routines. In the past, farmers put a high importance on economic productivity, and in the process, they neglected their personal safety and health protection. Moreover, the town does not have a government office providing farmers with the right work safety education and training, or coordinating the town’s safety promotion efforts.

Elderly 65+ years:
Senior citizens living alone lack the mutual care and attention of families; furthermore, they lack proper safety consciousness. This problem places senior citizens among the home injury high-risk groups. Deteriorating health conditions also reduce the self-care capacity of senior citizens, consequently increasing the chances of a fall, vehicle accident, or burn injury. These injuries could, on occasions, pose a serious threat to their lives.

At the following environments:

Home:

The Safe Home Program
There are many types of home injuries, such as fall injuries, piercing and collision injuries, suffocation, burns, poisoning, etc. The primary victims of these injuries are children, senior citizens and women. Hence, the Home Safety Plan made it a priority to disseminate fall prevention information to senior citizens, as well as to teach senior citizen caregivers about the aspects and importance of a safe home environment. Secondly, joint programs with schools had been implemented to teach children at home and school the necessary safety protection information.

1. The Safe Home Environment for Senior Citizens (senior citizens)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) classes and training are regularly held to enhance the self-rescue and emergency rescue skills of community members. Home safety information is disseminated to the public to teach parents how to identify home hazards and to upgrade their home environment management skills.

2. The Safe Rural Home Plan
Community members are taught to recognize potential home hazards to mitigate tripping or falling accidents among children and senior citizens, as well as mitigate cutting or piercing accidents among women.

3. Senior Citizen’s Second Fall Injury Prevention Plan
Plan is carried out through sports groups to build up physical capacity and retard onslaughts of aging among senior citizens.
The program also saw to the care and visitation of senior citizens hospitalized due to fall injuries; on the other hand, the home environment inspection plan taught the home companions of senior citizens proper fall or tripping prevention information.

Traffic:

Road Safety Program
According to injury statistics data, the bike related injuries at the Dung-Feng Bikers Greenbelt had continued to stay high; it is followed by ”driving under the influence of alcohol” related car accident injury statistics. Hence the Road Safety Promotion Plan mainly focuses on the improvement of the road environmental conditions, as well as on the enhancement of the safety consciousness of pedestrians.

1. The Dung-Feng Bikers Greenbelt Traffic Sign and Surrounding Facility Installation Plan
2. Safety Helmet for Bikers Plan
3. Key Intersection Traffic Management
4. Drunk Driving Crackdown Plan
5. Electronic Patrol and Surveillance Plan
6. Road Rights Orientation Plan
7. Safe Walkways for School Children Plan

Occupational:

The Safe Farm Program
In Dungshr, 30% of the population engages in farming; hence the high regard of the committee has given to the health and safety problems of farmers. During the past few years, the country saw the merger of the farming and leisure industries. This development attracted numerous tourists into Dungshr. Hence, the Safe Farm Program not only provides farmers with a safety protection program for their farming operations, but also sees to the gradual improvement of hazardous farm conditions, mitigation of pesticide use, development of the total safety farm, and the protection of tourist safety. The Safe Farm Program has the following features:

1. Pesticide Toxicity Recognition Plan
2. Pesticide Spraying with Proper Protective Apparel and Gear Plan
3. Farm Equipment Operation Education and Training Plan
4. Farm Warehouse Inventory Management Standard Plan
5. Farm Machinery Safe Operation Plan
6. Safe Farm Plan
7. Production of farm safety educational VCDs
8. Expansion of the scope of farm safety education and information Dissemination
9. The Auspicious Garden Plan

School:

Safe School Program
The Safe School Program aims to strengthen the safety consciousness and behavior, as well as school safety promotion ability of students, teachers, and school employees. It also aims to foster cooperation between the schools and the community.

1. The Schoolchildren’s Safe Walk to School (children)
2. School Campus Playground Facility Safety (children)
3. The Safe Biking for Children (children)
4. The School Campus Surrounding Surveillance Plan
5. The Child Safety Training Program for Teachers
6. The After-School Counseling Plan for Children

Leisure:
Road Biking Safety Camp Initiative associates with local schools at all levels, hoping to increase local residents’ awareness of biking safety and helmet use and to create a courteous cycling culture through bike circling activity around the Dungshr Community. For future, the Dungshr Community will select six biking safety angels to carry on bicycling safety education and safe riding culture promotion activities across school campuses to help reduce children’s bicycle accidents and injuries.

Violence prevention and Suicide prevention:
The Violence and Suicide Prevention Committee was established in the beginning of February 2005. They incorporate with local police stations, volunteer groups, and social service organizations to prevent the intentional and self-inflected injuries in Dungshr community.

Safety within Hospital:
The Safe Hospital initiative aims at preventing patients, doctors, nurses, visitors and staff from different types of injuries in the hospital.

Programs aiming at”High risk-groups”: Yes

Surveillance of injuries:

Dungshr Farmers Hospital Emergency Department
Numbers per year:
Population base: 56,452
Started year: 2002

Publications: -

Download the application report:

Dungshr Application to Become a Member of the Safe Community Network

Produced information material, pamphlets: Yes

Staff

Coordinator: 1
Number: 4
Professions: part-time or full-time: 4
Organization: Taichung Safety and Health Promotion Association
Specific intersectoral leadership group: Taichung County Government, Dungshr Farmers Association

International commitments:

Study visits: No

Participation in Safe Community conferences:
12th International Conference on Safe Communities, Hong Kong, March 2003
13th International Conference on Safe Communities, Czech Republic, June 2004
1st International Conference on Safe School, Czech Republic, May 2004
7th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Austria, June 2004

Hosting Safe Community Conferences:
Assisting 3rd Asian Regional Conference on Safe Communities
Hosting ”Travelling Seminars”: No

For further information contact:

Shing-shu Huang (Charles)
Taichung Safety and Health Promotion Association (TSHPA)
No.297, Feng-shih Rd., Dungshr Township
Taichung County 423
China (Province of Taiwan)
Phone: +886 4 2577 2023
Fax: +886 4 2588 8698
E-mail: shingshu888@yahoo.com.tw