Early Childhood Injury Prevention Resources from Parachute Canada

Injuries are the leading cause of death for children in Canada and a leading cause of hospitalization. Parachute Canada has produced a new range of injury prevention resources for practitioners in public health, early childhood education, family support services, and others working with caregivers of children ages 0-6. The resources provide simple messages and images to use when teaching families about child injury prevention. The resources also address the social determinants of health and how to influence behaviour change.

The project is a collaboration of CAPC/CPNP partners, PHAC, and members of the Canadian Collaborating Centres for Injury Prevention (CCCIP). Funding was provided by PHAC’s CAPC/CPNP National Projects Fund.

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Image Gallery

The image gallery gives access to simple images and messages about the following injuries that affect children ages 0-6:

• Falls
• Burns and scalds
• Drowning
• Poisoning
• Suffocation-related injuries and safe sleep
• Motor vehicle related injuries (child passenger restraint)
• Playgrounds (venue)

Under each injury heading are images of the most common ways a young child can be injured, and a description of the danger or risk in a negative image, as well as what can be done to prevent that injury, in the positive image.

These images can be useful in starting discussions with caregivers about how to prevent injuries and problem-solve around the barriers they encounter to keeping children safe. The images can be integrated into other in-house resources such as posters, calendars, and displays. In addition, each injury is accompanied by supplementary messages and links to additional resources through Parachute and its partners.

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Free E-Learning Course: Introduction to Child Injury Prevention

Introduction to Child Injury Prevention (ICIP) is a free e-learning course for practitioners working with caregivers of children ages 0-6, particularly families that may be new to Canada, have lower literacy, or live in rural or remote places in Canada. It takes between 2-4 hours to complete all the course lessons. You can leave the course at any time and come back into the beginning of the lesson you were working on. For more information and to sign-in click here.

The course includes program examples and resources such as surveys and booster seat and lifejacket observation questionnaires, as well as links to a variety of additional child injury prevention (0-6) resources in the areas of:

• Ages and Stages
• Healthy Child Development/Resiliency
• Behaviour Change
• Social Determinants of Injury
• Policy Development

As a final resource, Twitter and Facebook sample posts are provided that can be incorporated/adapted for your own organization’s social media postings.