On Thursday 5th May, SCSN hosted the online ‘Home Safety Scotland’ forum. The event was an opportunity to learn more about home safety issues in Scotland and for members across Scotland to share what is happening in their locality and provide valuable updates to other members.
The forum began with introductions from Lorraine Gilles, the Chief Officer at SCSN. Lorraine explained that Home Safety Scotland is a knowledge exchange network, promoting the sharing of best practice which offers regular opportunity to hear expert guest speakers, share problems collectively and look for solutions together. Lorraine then went on share some statistics relating to home safety. These included:
· Public Health Scotland data shows that 1 in 9 emergency hospital admissions as a direct result of unintentional injury, and there were 2,759 deaths in 2020. The young and elderly are most at risk, and 94% of deaths take place in our most deprived communities.
· The World Health Organisation informs us that “falls are the second leading cause of unintentional deaths worldwide”. They stress that “prevention strategies should emphasise education, training, creating safer environments, prioritising fall-related research and establishing effective policies to reduce risk”.
· The Scottish Government (SG) encourages us all to build resilience in communities, take early preventative action, collaborate to deliver evidence-based interventions, and work closely across the system to develop a joined-up approach.
You can download and read the full learning report here.