Issue addressed:
A systematic ecological framework in which to design sustainable, community-based, safety promotion interventions is presented.
Methods:
A literature review was undertaken of English-language articles addressing the topics of 'ecological injury prevention or safety promotion', 'ecological health promotion', 'sustainable economic, health or ecological systems' and 'steady state', with 143 articles retrieved and reviewed.
Results:
Injury prevention is a biomedical construct, in which injury is perceived to be a physical event resulting from the sudden release of environmental energy producing tissue damage in an individual. This reductionist perspective overlooks the importance of psychological and sociological determinants of injury. Safety has physical, psychological and sociological dimensions. It is inherently an ecological concept. Interventions aiming to achieve long-term improvements in community safety must seek to develop sustainable safety promoting characteristics within the target community.
Conclusion:
To reduce a community's risk of injury and sustain this lowered risk, the community 'ecological system' must have access to the resources necessary to maintain the desired outcome and the ability to mobilise these resources.
Key words:
Safety promotion, injury prevention, sustainability, ecological health promotion.
Health Promotion Journal of Australia 2005;16:5-10
So what?
While project sustainability is a mandatory piece of politically correct rhetoric, it is less often achieved. Interventions dependent on external resources are vulnerable. The solution: build sustainability from the outset by maximising a community's capacity to maintain safety initiatives within their own resources.
Authors
Dale Hanson, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Queensland
Jan Hanson, School of Medicine, James Cook University, Queensland
Paul Vardon, Statewide Health Promotion Unit, Queensland Health
Kathryn McFarlane, Jacqui Lloyd, Tropical Public Health Unit, Queensland Health
Reinhold Muller, David Durrheim, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Queensland
Correspondence
Dr Dale Hanson, James Cook University, Mackay Base Hospital Campus, PO Box 5580, Mackay Mail Centre, Mackay, Queensland 4740. Tel: (07) 4968 6638; fax: (07) 4968 6639; e-mail: dwhanson@mackay.matilda.net.au
