See the below newsletter for articles on Safe Dates in Virginia and
Project RADAR.
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Injury and Violence Prevention
News
June 25, 2007

The Division of Injury & Violence Prevention's (DIVP) E-Newsletter
provides an update of events, news, and developments in injury and
violence prevention. Most items are linked to websites, including
DIVP's website, for more detail.

Calendar Notes

* National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's
Standardized Child Passenger Safety Certification Course
Harrisonburg - July 24th - July 27th
Visit www.safetyseatva.org <http://www.safetyseatva.org/> to learn
more.

* Risk Watch Workshop: An Introduction for Schools to the
Unintentional Injury Prevention Curriculum
August 13, 2007, 9am-12pm, Richmond, VA This three-hour workshop, for
elementary schools, will introduce educators to Risk Watch
(www.riskwatch.org <http://www.riskwatch.org/> ), an unintentional
injury prevention curriculum that addresses the eight leading causes
of injuries to children. This curriculum covers Pre-K through 6th
grade and is correlated to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)
for Health Education, Language Arts and English. Educators that
attend this workshop will be eligible to receive a free full Risk
Watch Curriculum set, valued at $306, for their school.
Visit www.injuryfreeschoolsva.org
<http://www.injuryfreeschoolsva.org/> to learn more and register.

* Child Passenger Safety Week will be moving from February to
September!
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is recognizing CPS
Week in the month of September instead of the usual month of February
in years past. According to NHTSA, September provides increased
opportunities for states and communities to conduct seat check events
without the threat of inclement weather. NHTSA encourages you to take
full advantage of this opportunity to help ensure that child
passengers are riding in the appropriate restraints by moving your
CPS week activities to September. If you would like to get a head
start, NHTSA will be supporting a 2007 CPS Week, to take place on
September 16-22. Planner materials, similar to those developed for
February's CPS Week, will be posted on www.boosterseat.gov
<http://www.boosterseat.gov/> in mid-summer.

News and Information


* New and Updated Data Resources from DIVP
The Data and Research section of the DIVP website has recently been
reorganized and updated to meet the needs of injury and violence
prevention advocates and the general public. Current reports and fact
sheets can now be found under the Injury and Violence Reports
section, while past reports have been moved to the Reports Archive
section. On the website you will find the newly released Injury in
Virginia 2005: A Report on Injury Related Deaths and Hospitalizations
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/reports/2005%20Cover%20and%20Injury%
20Report.pdf> , Virginia Injury Report on Poisonings
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/Topics/Virginia%20Poison%20Report%
201999%20-%202004.pdf> , as well as fact sheets covering a number of
different injury related causes.

You will also find that DIVP is currently in the process of
developing a series of Injury Fact Sheets for each of Virginia's 35
Local Health Districts. These facts sheets will cover injury death
and hospitalizations from 2001-2005 and will include information on
intent, mechanism, age, gender, and race.

VOIRS, Virginia Online Injury Reporting System
<http://www.vahealth.org/CIVP/VOIRS/index.aspx> , has been updated
with 2005 injury-related death and hospitalization data. VOIRS
allows you to create customized injury data reports on various
mechanisms (causes) and intents of injury by geographic and
demographic variables. Simply click on a city or county in the drop
down menu for place of residence for data specific to your area.

To see these and other changes, be sure to visit the website at
http://www.vahealth.org/civp/datacivp. For hard copies of any
reports or data related questions please contact Christina Sloan at
804-864-7445 or christina.sloan@....


* Safe Dates: Upcoming Opportunity for Schools to Obtain
Training on an Adolescent Dating Abuse Prevention Curriculum

DIVP will be offering seventy-five Virginia middle and high schools
the opportunity to participate in Safe Dates training. Safe Dates is
an evaluated dating abuse prevention program consisting of a nine-
session dating abuse curriculum, a play about dating abuse, a poster
contest, and parent materials. DIVP will be providing these
materials to the seventy-five schools via an application process. In
addition, DIVP will provide training to prepare the
teachers/facilitators to present the program in their schools. Each
school selected to receive the Safe Dates materials may choose to
utilize the school staff members to implement the program or to work
cooperatively with a local community agency such as a domestic
violence program or a sexual assault crisis center.

More details about the curriculum training opportunity will be
available by July 2007. Please join the DIVP sexual assault
prevention listserv www.vahealth.org/civp/sexualviolence to ensure
that you will receive the application material when it is made
available.


* New Project RADAR Curriculum for Healthcare Providers on
Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
The Project RADAR curriculum for healthcare providers on Intimate
Partner Violence (IPV) has been approved for continuing medical
education credits and is now available online at www.vcu-cme.org.
This course, designed to assist healthcare providers in effectively
identifying, assessing, and managing patients experiencing IPV, has
been designated by the Virginia Commonwealth University School of
Medicine's Office of Continuing Medical Education for up to 1.5 AMA
PRA Category 1 credits for physicians. Non-physicians may earn a
Certificate of Participation which will indicate the number of hours
spent in the activity. For more information, please contact Laurie
Crawford at laurie.crawford@... or 804-864-7705.

During the months of April and May, the Division of Injury & Violence
Prevention sponsored a statewide awareness campaign on the health
impact of domestic violence. The campaign, which encouraged victims
to talk to their healthcare providers about abuse and provided the
statewide family violence and sexual assault hotline number, included
radio public service announcements, billboards, and bus ads
throughout the state.

* Seat Check Events
VDH has partnered or coordinated 20 seat check events since our last
newsletter. VDH and Safe Kids partnered with the Virginia State
Police and Radio Disney to kick off Child Passenger Safety Week in
February. The event was held at the Forest Hill Wal-Mart in Richmond
and was extremely successful but cold! We had twenty mile an hour
winds and temperatures starting out that morning in the twenties,
ending in the mid thirties. Despite the beautiful weather we had
technicians and volunteers from all over to help check 79 seats. We
have partnered with those agencies to have two more events in the
coming months. We have several events still coming up so please check
the calendar of events on the Buckle Up Virginia web page,
www.safetyseatva.org <http://www.safetyseatva.org/> . Thank you to
all of the partners that have helped all of our events be a success!


* Permanent Fit Stations
Thank you to all of the Virginia Department of Health permanent
inspection stations across the state. Being a permanent fit station
is an asset to your community, all of your hard work and dedication
is a valuable service. Great job! VDH is working hard to assist
agencies across the State in starting a permanent fit station in
their community. If you would like more information or have questions
about the program, please contact Tobey Anne Allen at (804) 864-7747
or email tobey.allen@...


* Childcare Provider Transportation Awareness Trainings
VDH offers a FREE ninety minute presentation to child care providers
and day cares on the basics of child passenger safety. The training
includes a seat inspection for parents and any vehicles that are used
to transport children. This year we have had several trainings across
Virginia and there are seven instructors that would be glad to help
you set up your own. For more information please contact Tobey Anne
Allen at (804) 864-7747 or email tobey.allen@...


* Updates to the Child Passenger Safety Law

Beginning July 1, 2007, Virginia will have a new child
passenger safety law that will further protect children
while on Virginia roadways. Changes are effective July 1, 2007
and are as follows:

* Virginia's Child Restraint Device Law - Code of Virginia
Article 13 - Section 46.2

o Child restraint devices are required for children through
the age of seven (until 8th birthday). Safety seats must be properly
used and approved by Department of Transportation standards.

o Rear-facing child restraint devices must be placed in the
back seat of a vehicle. In the event the vehicle does not have a
back seat, the child restraint device may be placed in the front
passenger seat only if the vehicle is either not equipped with a
passenger side airbag or the passenger side airbag has been
deactivated.

o Children can no longer ride unrestrained in the rear cargo
area of vehicles.

* Virginia's Passenger Safety Belt Law - Code of Virginia
Article 12 - Section 46-2

o Children age 8 through age 15 (until age 16) must be belted
correctly in vehicle safety belts, in vehicles manufactured after
January 1, 1968. Exemptions are taxicabs, school buses, executive
sedans and limousines.

A downloadable handout of the complete law is available in English
and Spanish on the Division of Injury and Violence Prevention website
at the following link
http://www.vahealth.org/civp/safetyseat/laws.asp.

About the Division of Injury & Violence Prevention

The Division of Injury & Violence Prevention, formerly known as the
Division of Injury & Violence Prevention (DIVP), is a division of the
Virginia Department of Health that focuses on the prevention of
unintentional, intentional and self-inflicted injuries. Our
strategies for prevention include research & assessment
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/datacivp.asp> , policy development,
training <http://www.vahealth.org/civp/training.asp> and community
education <http://www.vahealth.org/civp/community.asp> , promotion
and dissemination of safety devices
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/fundcivp.asp> , public information
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/pubscivp.asp> and funding
<http://www.vahealth.org/civp/fundcivp.asp> of local projects. Visit
www.vahealth.org/civp <http://www.vahealth.org/civp>

Contact Us
Virginia Department of Health
Division of Injury and Violence Prevention
109 Governor Street, 8th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-864-7732 or 1-800-832-8333
Fax: 804-864-7748
Email: civp@... <mailto:civp@...>

If you would like to be added to DIVP's email distribution list so
that you get the E-Newsletter directly, please email
civp@... with "DIVP E-Newsletter" in the subject line.