Weekly Briefing of Injury, Violence and Disabilite

Summaries of meetings and events: global

On 15 June WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan and New York City Mayor Mr Michael Bloomberg launched the Global status report on road safety, the first broad assessment of the road safety situation in 178 countries. The launch took place at a press conference at Peterson Hall in New York City. There were approximately 80 attendees who included journalists and national and international road safety experts. Following a short film, VIP Director Dr Etienne Krug presented the main findings from the report: road traffic injuries remain an important public health problem, particularly for low-income and middle-income countries; pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists make up almost half of those killed on the roads, and there is a need for these road users to be given more attention in road safety programmes; and in many countries road safety laws need to be made more comprehensive while enforcement should be strengthened. Dr Chan then officially launched the report, thanking Mr Bloomberg for the financial support that made the development of the report possible. Dr Chan's speech stressed the moral responsibility that the international community now faces in acting on the recommendations and implementing the interventions which have been shown to make roads safer. Mr Bloomberg expressed his appreciation to Dr Chan for WHO's leadership in global health issues generally, and in road safety specifically. The launch of the Global status report on road safety was covered through hundreds of articles and radio and television programmes in many key global and national media. For further information, please contact Dr Tami Toroyan Summaries of meetings and events: regional and national
From 16-18 June a TEACH-VIP Training of Trainers was held for 23 participants in Moscow, Russian Federation. The workshop was jointly organized by the WHO Country Office, EURO and WHO Headquarters staff and also involved Professor Mark Bellis from Liverpool John Moores University, a WHO Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention. The workshop was primarily focused on training trainers who had an interest in violence prevention, although some unintentional injury topics were also addressed. The meeting participants expressed great enthusiasm for the training materials as well as the workshop, with approximately 70% indicating they felt they would be able to use the TEACH-VIP training materials in a training setting within the next 6 months. For further information, please contact Ms Hedda Bie A capacity building workshop was held at Istanbul University on 15 June to introduce the TEACH-VIP curriculum to senior staff and policy makers. There were senior academics present from 11 universities in and around Istanbul, as well as senior officials from the Ministry of Health and the Higher Education Council. The meeting was opened by Dr Cristina Profili (Head of WHO Country Office), Dr Fazil Inan (Ministry of Health) and Prof Hamidi Ayetkin ( Uludag University ). Dr Dinesh Sethi presented the TEACH-VIP curriculum and emphasized the importance of building capacity in health systems as an essential step in reducing the burden from injuries. As part of the biennial collaborative agreement between the WHO EURO and the Ministry of Health of Turkey , 12 lessons from TEACH-VIP on unintentional injury have been translated into Turkish. The content of the translations was introduced to participants and the next steps were discussed. Amongst these were that lessons on violence prevention should also be translated into Turkish, that a train the trainers workshop be held to ensure uniform quality of delivery, that more emphasis be given to finding local examples, and that the Higher Education Council and Ministry of Health urge universities to incorporate parts of the curriculum into undergraduate and postgraduate medical and public health training.
On 8-9 June, the Nordic Baltic Workshop on the Prevention of Family Violence was held in Riga, Latvia. Organized by WHO/Europe, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Latvia, the Public Health Agency of Latvia and the Nordic Council of Ministers, with support from the Norwegian Government; 96 experts, policy makers and young journalists from 13 European countries came together to exchange information and experience about the role of the health sector in a multisectoral response to family violence . Conference topics covered prevention of child maltreatment, elder abuse and intimate partner violence. To improve injury prevention it was agreed the health sector needs to commit to more widespread policy development and implementation of effective programmes, and to engage with other stakeholders in a multisectoral response.
A TEACH-VIP capacity building workshop was held in Budapest , Hungary on 18-19 May. The course, led by Mr Francesco Mitis (WHO) and Dr Marya Benji, Hungary Focal Point for Injury Prevention, was organized using core TEACH-VIP modules, at the National Centre for Healthcare Audit and Inspection. In attendance were 56 participants from several ministries (Education, Transport, Social Affairs, Health), the National Institute of Occupational Health, Chemical Safety and Environmental Health, Hungarian Red Cross, Industrial Injury Prevention Department, National Directorate General for Disaster Management, 12 chief district nurses (at county level), 21 chief district nurses for Budapest districts and Pest county. Lessons on specific injury topics were given and TEACH-VIP modules were adapted using the national data and using local examples for exercises. The course was evaluated favourably and discussions are planned on how to mainstream this into health professional training. WHO SEARO convened an inter-country workshop on injury surveillance systems in the Maldives on 28-30 April. About 30 professionals from most Member States in the region attended the workshop. The objectives were to review the existing injury surveillance systems in Member States, share experiences on the tools used and reports developed, and make recommendations for establishing or strengthening injury surveillance and information dissemination at national level. There were presentations on existing injury surveillance systems and an exhibition of manuals for data collection, surveillance record forms and surveillance information reports. There were also presentations and instruction on basic statistics, data management, and surveillance report structure, generation and dissemination. Through group work, participants gained skills in classifying the causes of injuries according to ICD 10; generating useful and appealing information reports for policy makers; and using proven principles and strategies for advocacy. An evaluation of the meeting revealed the satisfaction of the participants. According to the WR Maldives, the 2007 First UN Global Road Safety Week and the selection of Maldives as host country for this workshop have stimulated the interest of the country policy makers in injury prevention.