Afternoon Workshops
The afternoon workshops continued the discussion of collaboration,
building on the discussion of strengths and resources that took place during
the afternoon panel presentation. These discussions explored the mutual
objectives that public health and highway safety agencies hope to achieve and
how agencies can capitalize on their strengths, resources, skills, and
knowledge to promote a mutually beneficial relationship. Traffic safety,
public health, and EMS representatives from each state were asked to develop
collaborative objectives for their state or region on which they could work
over the next 6 to 12 months. A large number of interesting ideas were
generated.
Many of the objectives involved meetings. Some of these meetings will take
place on the state level. Others will be regional. The purposes of the
meetings will vary on the level of existing collaboration within each state or
region. Meetings will take place to:
- understand various agencies' perspectives on traffic safety
- become more familiar with the activities of the different agencies
- develop a policy statement that could both anchor and drive joint efforts
- review program goals for mutual objectives on which agencies can
collaborate
- identify areas of agreement for legislative or regulatory action
It was acknowledged that regional Health and Human Services and NHTSA staff
involvement would benefit these meetings. Two other meeting-related objectives
were to have agency representatives sit in on one another's planning meetings
and to increase public health participation at national events such as
Lifesavers and NAGHSR's annual meeting.
Another major theme for collaborative objectives was to improve data
collection, linkage, and analysis. These objectives included sharing data and
collecting data in ways that allow data to be linked across agencies. One
state decided to produce a statistical report on injuries in their state.
Other objectives involved funding. One group established an objective to find
funding for state health department traffic injury prevention projects. Many
felt that an important objective was to find additional funding sources in
order to remove some of the pressure from the traditional federal sources. It
was suggested that the insurance industry might be a source of such funding,
especially if the cost-effectiveness of traffic safety interventions could be
demonstrated to them. Other objectives targeted those funds over which state
agencies had control. For example, one objective involved motivating state
grant recipients to collaborate across disciplines. Another was to have
representatives from state health departments sit in on traffic safety grant
planning groups.
Other objectives that came out of the afternoon sessions were to:
- Share delivery mechanisms to reach high-risk groups.
- Ensure that public health is an integral part of Safety Management System
(SMS) planning and implementation.
- Update or develop statewide directories of transportation-related safety
projects.
- Create a task force on driver's education for immigrants.
- Integrate child safety seat education into maternal and child health (MCH)
visits.
- Expand existing networks of traffic safety and injury prevention advocates by
recruiting victims' families and those who have been saved by mechanisms such
as seat belts or helmets, and recruiting more law enforcement personnel and
community activists.
- Determine the current level of enforcement in states with seat belt or child
safety seat laws by surveying state and local police departments and using this
information to increase enforcement. In addition, convince the legislature to
earmark part of funds from car seat fines to purchase seats for low-income
families.
- Introduce state legislation, including legislation on bicycle helmets,
passengers riding in the cargo area of pickup trucks, primary seat belt
enforcement.
http://www.edc.org/HHD/csn/buildbridges/partner/afternoonwork.html
Revised: October 28, 1996
©1997 Education Development Center, Inc.
