April Falls Day – Unintentional Injury and Falls

April Falls Day – What to Do

Unintentional Injury and Falls

Unintentional injury is the biggest issue in community safety and when it comes to unintentional injury the most common injury will result from falling.

Falls are the cause of more hospital admissions and injury statistics than any other safety issue. But, falls draw less media attention than most other safety issues.  Public awareness about the risk and frequency of falls, and the extent of injury and impairment that can result is alarmingly low.

April Falls Day – Promoting Falls Prevention

To draw attention to this important issue the Victorian Safe Communities Network (VSCN) is declaring
April 3 as April Falls Day.

Starting on this day and across the month of April VSCN will focus on falls awareness and falls prevention.
For April Falls 2017 the VSCN has chosen three focus area:

  1. Falls involving Older People – both in the home and out and about
  2. Ladder Falls – which mostly involve men
  3. Fall involving Children and Young people– mainly in and around the home including falls from windows as well as from nursery furniture and trampolines

April Falls Day 2017 Posters – All Topics (ii)

Working in Partnership

VSCN is undertaking April Falls as a joint promotion working together with other safety agencies and networks in Australia plus the other nations in the Pan Pacific Safe Communities Network (PPSCN) – Canada, New Zealand and the USA.  These agencies will work together to promote falls prevention and awareness by providing a range of resources and information for the use of everybody.

What to expect

With this post you will find some printable posters and resources for you to use. These have been created to accommodate your own branding.

A schedule which outlines the resources that will be made available for each of the focus areas. This is provided to allow you to anticipate, plan for and promote the information

  1.  April Falls Day 2017 Posters – All Topics (ii)
    .April Falls Day – Ladder Falls Promotion Schedule
    .April Falls Day 2017 Falls affecting younger people Promotion Schedule

 

The VSCN website (www.vscn.org.au ) plus its Facebook Page and the PPSCN Facebook Page will be key sources of information leading up to April Falls Day and across the month.

Next Steps

The April Falls Promotion relies on the work of agencies and partners to spread the word.  VSCN is seeking your support to do this work.  You can

  1. Distribute this information and its attachments to key partners and to appropriate areas inside your organisation
  2. Print the attached posters, with your brand added if you wish, for display in workplaces and public areas
  3. Promote and draw upon the April Falls materials posted on the VSCN website
  4. Like VSCN https://www.facebook.com/VictorianSCN/ and PPSCN on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/panpacificsafecommunities/   to get their Facebook Posts. These will lead you to a range of other resources.

Use and Relevance

Some ideas for where you can send or display information

Send information to or display at these locations. Falls and Older People Ladder Falls Falls and Children
Aged Care Centres a a
Libraries a a a
Waiting Rooms and Reception Areas a a a
Neighbourhood Houses & Community Centres a a a
Childcare Centres a
Schools and Kindergartens a
Clinics a a a
Men’s Sheds a a
Male Work Areas a
Shopping Centres a a a

 

Other Information

You will also find other falls related information and April Falls resources on the website of the Clinical Excellence Commission of NSW.  We acknowledge them as the creators of the April Falls Day concept.