Injuries are a significant health concern in Colorado, affecting everyone regardless of age, gender, race or economic status. Injuries are the leading cause of death for Coloradans ages 1-44 years. Each year, more than 32,000 Coloradans are hospitalized for injuries and more than 250,000 are treated in emergency departments and physicians' offices.
We encourage you to help prevent trauma and injury with the reproduction and distribution of prevention fact sheets for community education purposes.
Many of the current initiatives are related to Safe Routes to School (SRTS) and these efforts include:
- Providing leadership and guidance for the Denver Safe Routes to School Coalition, composed of more than 70 members representing, City and County Agencies, Denver Public Schools, local universities, non-profit agencies and interested residents.
- Working with partners to provide walking and biking education programs, school encouragement events and walk audits in neighborhoods surrounding schools.
- Partnering with local schools to create policy, systems and environmental changes that improve access to and safety for more children to walk and bike to school.
- Using photovoice to tell stories from the community perspective identifying successes and gaps in current programming.
- Adding safe biking and walking language to existing Denver Health and city-wide plans.
Beyond SRTS programming, injury prevention activities address other forms of unintentional and intentional forms of injury across the entire age spectrum of Denver. Examples include:
- Adding a prevention focus to existing local child fatality reviews.
- Providing car seat fit education.
- Presenting at local health fairs sharing information on topics ranging from heat safety to sports injuries.
- Participating in regional and state-wide groups such as Safe Kids Denver Metro, Gang Reduction Initiative in Denver and Colorado Teen Driving Alliance.
- Creating education and awareness campaigns related to prescription drug overdose, accidental poisonings and impaired driving.
- Providing resources to prevent older adult falls.
As the program continues to develop, Denver Public Health will continue to expand current programming to address topics like marijuana safety and suicide prevention that are driven by community need.