Safe Community Harstad

Name of the Community: Harstad
Country: Norway
Number of inhabitants: 23,000
Program started year: 1985
International Safe Communities Network Membership: Designation year: 1994. Re-designation year: 2003

Info for the community: www.harstad.kommune.no

The program covers the following safety promotion activities:

For the age group

Children 0-14 years:
Thermal/chemical injury, traffic injury, school safety.

Youth 15-24 years:
Traffic, violence, sports and leisure.

Adults 25-64 years:
Traffic, leisure, occupational.

Elderly 65+ years:
Fall injuries, traffic.

At the following environments:

Home:
Children and elderlies. Focus on thermal/chemical injuries in children and fall-fracture prevention in the elderlies.

Traffic: All age groups.

Occupational:
Occupational safety program is developing but not strong yet.

School:
Focus on violence prevention and conflict solving.

Sports:
Sports safety program developing but not strong yet.

Leisure: Developing.
Other: Drugs and alcohol in adolescents .

Børge Ytterstad and
'super-nurse' Solveig
Rostøl Bakken

"Accidents" (non-intentional injuries) in the following injury areas: private homes, traffic area, sports and leisure areas.

Violence prevention:
Schools and streets (particularly outside pubs and restaurants at closing time).

Suicide prevention: schools, youth clubs.

Programs aiming at "high risk groups":
Burn prevention in small children, fall-fracture prevention in the aged, traffic safety program particularly targeting adolescent bicyclists (helmet promotion) and young automobile and motor cycle drivers.

Surveillance of injuries:
At local hospital there is a continuous prospective, all-encompassing injury recording according to the NOMESCO system. All injuries treated outpatient and in-patient are recorded. Also injuries are recorded at the primary health care emergency room located at the hospital from May 1995.
Numbers per year: About 3000 total. From the Harstad population about 1600
Population base: Harstad has 23 000. Harstad Hospital serves about 50 000
Started year: 1 July 1985

Publications:
Graitcer P. L. Third International Safe Communities Conference,. Harstad 6-8 June 1994. Conference report. Norwegian Safety Forum, report 4/1994

Lund J. Third International Safe Communities Conference. Harstad 6-8 June 1994. Plenary proceedings. Norwegian Safety Forum, report 5/1994.

Lund J. Third International Safe Communities Conference. Harstad 6-8 June 1994. Workshops proceedings. Norwegian Safety Forum, report 6/1994.

Mikkelsen S. Safe Community – symbol og samarbeid. Sluttrapport fra studie av lokalt ulykkesforebyggende arbeid organisert etter WHOs Safe Community (Trygge Lokalsamfunn)-modell. Høgskolen i Harstad, skriftserie 3/1999. (in English and Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. Thee Harstad injury prevention study: Hospital-based injury recording and community-based intervention. PH.D. Thesis. ISM skriftserie Nr.33, Univeristet i Troms, 1995.

Ytterstad B, Wasmuth H. The Harstad injury prevention study: Evaluation of hospital-based injury-recording and community-based intervention for traffic injury prevention. Accid Anal Prev 1995;27:111-23.

Ytterstad B. The Harstad injury prevention study: Hospital-based injury recording used for outcome evaluation of community-based bicyclist and pedestrian injury prevention. Scand J of Primary Health Care. 1995;13:141-9.

Ytterstad B, Søgaard AJ. The Harstad injury prevention study: Prevention of burns in small children by community-based intervention. Burns. 1995;21:259-66.

Ytterstad B. The Harstad injury prevention study: Community-based prevention of fall-fractures in the aged evaluated by means of a hospital-based injury recording system. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1996;50:551-8.

Ytterstad B. The Harstad injury prevention study: The epidemiology of sport injuries. An 8 year study. Br J Sports Med. 1996;30:64-68.

Ytterstad B. Forebygging av frakturer hos eldre. Sandstrøing eller medikamenter? Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 1997; 117:1810 (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. Smith G. Coggan C. The Harstad Injury Prevention Study. Prevention of burns in young children by community-based intervention. Injury Prevention 1998; 4:176-80.

Ytterstad B. Samfunn preget av flere kulturer. Leserbrev fra New Zealand. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 1998; 118:2662-4. (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. The Harstad injury prevention study: The characteristics and distribution of fractures amongst elders - an eight year study. Intern J of Circumpolar Health 1999; 58:84-95.

Ytterstad B, Conway G. (Editorial) ICCH11 in Harstad Norway. The Millennium Congress. Intern J of Circumpolar Health 1999; 58:70-1. Ytterstad B. Strategiske veivalg for å forebygge skader. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 1999; 119:783. (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. Nullvisjonen for trafikkulykker i Norge. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 1999; 119: 1633-4 (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. Verdien av skadeforebygging i Norge etter "safe community"-modellen i Harstad. Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 1999; 119: 68-70 (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. Registration bias in evaluation of Safe Community Program by Kopjar B et al. Injury Control and Safety Promotion 2000; 7:37-9.

Ytterstad B. Voldsskader. Epidemiologisk kartlegging må føre til effektiv forebygging Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 2000; 120: 656. (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B, Lund J. Forebygging av barneulykker i Norge. "Vi har mange barn – men ingen å miste". Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 2000; 120: 3375. (Norwegian)

Ytterstad B. The Harstad Injury Prevention Study. Promoting sustainability for an effective traffic safety program for children (in manuscript).

Ytterstad B, Norheim AJ. Snowmobile injuries in Svalbard - a three year study (in manuscript).

Ytterstad B, Norheim AJ. The epidemiology of injuries in Svalbard compared with Harstrad (in manuscript). Produced information material, pamphlets:

When fire spirit is burning- about promotion work in safety and health (in Norwegian). Down load the report.

Several pamphlets on Injury Prevention (in Norwegian).

Harstad kommune: Application to become a "SAFE COMMUNITY"

Astrid Berg: Sluttrapport "Ulykkesprosjektet", prosjekt innen ulykkesforebyggende arbeid. 1990-1994

Tor Strandskog:VOLD en erfaringsrapport om det voldsforebyggende arbeide gjennomført ved Senja Politikammer, Harstad 1991-1994

Johan Weydahl: Harstad som trygt lokalsamfunn – en realitet i dag?

Harstad kommune, seksjon for veg og trafikk. Trafikksikkerhetsplan for Harstad kommune 1999-20004.

Harstad kommune: Rusmiddelpolitisk plan for Harstad kommune 2000-2004.

Harstad kommune og Sev. Dahl’s Assurancekontor AS. Håndbok i skadeforebyggende virksomhet. 1998.

Trafikkskaderapport No: 1 – 35.

Awards:

Harstad municipality received "Det nytter"-award (A national "it works"-award) for 1995 for injury prevention work resulting in the first Norwegian WHO Safe Community accreditation.

Dr. Ytterstad received 22 September 1997 "Karl Evangs pris for helseopplysning" for 1997 (A national award for health information and promotion)

U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington DC. National Highway Safety Administration awarded Børge Ytterstad, representing the Harstad Injury Prevention Study: International Safe Community "Traffic Safety Partnership Award". Awarded at the 5th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Control in New Dehli, India 7. mars 2000.

Staff:
Number: 4
Professions:

Advisory: Børge Ytterstad, associate professor, surgeon, MD PHD.
Project leader: Yousif Rahim, Health economist.
Project assistant: Solveig Rostøl Bakken, public health nurse. (50 % position)
Injury Secretary at Harstad Hospital: Ellen Nikolaisen, (nurse in 50 % position)

Specific intersectoral leadership group: Injury Prevention Group

For further information contact:

Børge Ytterstad
Phone: +47 770 15000,
Fax: +47 770 15127
boergey@online.no

Solveig Rostøl Bakken
solveig.rostol.bakken@harstad.kommune.no