Charts and Injury Prevention Literature
The first step to prevent injuries is to understand the causes and consequences. The next step is to take the necessary actions to try to avoid hurting oneself and others. To enhance our Prevention of Injuries Classes, we developed and produced educational charts that aid in reducing accident-related spinal cord injuries (SCIs), traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and deaths.
TBIs and SCIs are often consequences of vehicle collisions, sports injuries, domestic hostility, falls, and gun violence. These afflictions are a serious public health threat with an emotional cost too high to measure and a dramatically increasing economic cost. Approximately 2% of the U.S. population lives with a TBI, and 1.4 million Americans sustain a TBI each year. Between 250,000 and 400,000 people in the U.S. have an SCI, with 11,000 additional cases annually.
Statistics about TBIs
- TBI is an impairment that causes depression, anxiety, isolation, physical complications, and inability to execute daily tasks.
- 5.3 million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from TBIs.
- Every 23 seconds, one person in the U.S. sustains a TBI.
- More than 50,000 people die every year as a result of a TBI.
- The total yearly national cost for TBIs is approximately $67 billion.
- The life expectancy of most brain-injured persons is similar to that of the average individual. For a severe head injury the lifetime costs per individual are approximately $4.8 million.
Statistics about SCIs
- An SCI is a traumatic lesion of neural elements in the spinal cord, resulting in any degree of sensory and/or motor deficit, autonomic dysfunction, and bladder/bowel dysfunction. The neurologic deficit or dysfunction can be temporary or permanent and may be incomplete or complete.
- The average lifetime expectancy for individuals with SCIs who survive the first year is between the ages of 50 and 70.
- The total yearly national cost for SCIs is $9.7 billion.
- The average yearly cost for the care of an individual with an SCI is between $60,000 to $130,000.
Charts
The charts that Help-Your-Self has developed are unique and easy to follow educational tools for people of all ages. They explain, in basic terms, the facts about SCIs and TBIs, they describe simple ways to prevent injuries and they present personal testimonials from young adults who have been injured. These charts are intended to be used by schools, fire/police departments, the department of motor vehicles (DMV), community centers, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, sports venues, and households. We would encourage you to use them as handouts or affix them to walls so they can be seen by the general public.
We have 3 charts:
BREAK YOUR BACK?
This chart describes the spinal nerves, spinal cord functions, and distinguishes between paraplegia and quadriplegia.
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY (TBI)
This chart describes how a TBI occurs, the consequences of TBIs, how to prevent a TBI, and testimonials of injured individuals.
UNDERSTANDING SPINAL CORD INJURIES
This chart maps the spinal column and states the consequences of spinal cord injuries. The chart describes the various limitations that individuals with spinal cord injuries might have according to the type of spinal cord damage.
Prevention of Injuries Literature
- Accident and Unintentional Injury Prevention This is published by the Center for Disease Control, School Health Policies and Programs Study. This document provides information on schools that teach injury prevention.
- Accident Prevention and Safety This site provides suggestions for accident prevention and safety techniques.
- A Risk-Based Method for Modeling Traffic Mortalities This is a Harvard Research paper that discusses how vehicle and environmental variables play a role in vehicle injuries and fatalities.
- Bicycle Injury Prevention This site provides bicycle safety tips.
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) This national organization holds a wealth of information on injury prevention techniques, statistics, prevention classes, and is recognized as a repository for national data.
- Data Needs for Planning and Monitoring Accident and Injury Prevention This site discusses different injury types and offers advice on injury prevention.
- Hard Head Patrol This site is published by the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and provides information on child and parent injury prevention.
- Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies This center researches and tracks the causes of mortality and disability around the globe.
- Health Hazards This is an article by Eric Nagourney that compares the rate of injured employees who are obese to those who are not obese.
- Injury Prevention resources from the American College of Surgeons.
- Injury Prevention and Research Center This site has current news articles, resources and events concerning injury prevention.
- MC-Spinal Chord Injuries This is an article by the Mayo Clinic on Spinal Chord Injuries and prevention.
- Overview: Risk and Prevention of Sharps Injuries in Healthcare Personnel This is an article on prevention of blood-borne virus transmission in healthcare personnel.
- Road Traffic Injuries This site discusses traffic related injuries and prevention.
- Safetylit This site provides weekly updates on preventing unintentional injuries, violence, and self-harm.
- Think First This is a National Foundation dedicated to the awareness and prevention of Spinal Chord and Brain Injuries.
- Understanding DALY This is a Harvard publication that discusses Disability-Adjusted Life Years system.
- Work Place Safety and Health This site provides links to different resources on workplace hazards, safety and prevention.