PREVENTION IS ESSENTIAL

Every year, Alberta's healthcare system spends about $5 Billion on injuries - just injuries.

That doesn't include visits to MediCentres for stitches, or bumps and bruises. It doesn't include visits for heart attacks or strokes, or cancer treatments. That's $5 Billion on Emergency Department visits and hospital stays for injuries.

Every hockey player that dislocates a shoulder; every quad rider that breaks a rib; every grandparent that breaks their hip; every motorcyclist that lays their bike down; every toddler that cracks their head on the corner of the coffee table; every scaffolder that isn't tied off and falls, they all add to the cost.

"Prevention is one of the few known ways to reduce demand for health care services.”

Julie Bishop

Real-life numbers

$5 Billion can be difficult for most people to imagine. With one year's spending on injuries, here's what that kind of money looks like:

• 13,053 complete mortgages¹
• School fees for 16.9 Million students (K-12)²
• That's 26 years worth of school fees for every K-12 student in Alberta
• 100,633 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4s³
• Complete tuition for 234,918 University students⁴
• 487 Tim Horton's Double-Doubles⁵ (Large) for every Albertan (~4.1 million)
• 5 Million iPhone 11 (outright) - two for every adult Albertan⁶

What if we could save that money?

Injury Prevention programs work. The burden of injuries is enormous, but is often overlooked in attempts at improving health.⁷

When carefully studied, developed, and implemented, prevention strategies have time and again proven to be effective in every facet of society - from school programs⁸ to workplace safety,^9,10,11 public policy to community strategies.¹²

The benefits of improved safety knowlege and culture manifest themselves over longer time frames, so it's critical that prevention programs remain a priority in order to be successful.¹²

¹ albertarealtor.ca (based on average house price of $383,040)

² asba.ab.ca (based on ~$295 school fees per K-12 Student)

³ derrickdodge.com (based on $49685 MSRP)

⁴ univcan.ca (based on tuition of $5,321 per year, per student)

⁵ timhortons.com/ca (based on ~$2.50 per beverage)

⁶ bell.ca (based on $1,005 purchase cost)

⁷ Mock, C., et al. Strengthening the prevention and care of injuries worldwide. Trauma V. 2004; 363: 2172-79.

⁸ Cao, ZJ, et al. Health belief model-based evaluation of school health education programme for injury prevention among high school students in the community context. BMC Public Health. 2014; 14:26.

⁹ Hamideh, Z., et al. The impact of IIPP policies on statewide injury rates in US construction. CPWR, University of Utah. 2014.

¹⁰ Huang, YH., et al. Corporate financial decision-makers' preceptions of workplace safety. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 2007; 39: 767-775.

¹¹ Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Injury and Illness Prevention Programs: White Paper. US Department of Labor. 2012.

¹² Nilsen, P. What makes community based injury prevention work? In search of evidence of effectiveness. Injury Prevention. 2004; 10:268-274.

FEATURED VIDEO