Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, and thank you for the invitation to speak to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women. The focus on maternal and children's health is an important issue, and the discussions about children's health would not be complete without the inclusion of preventable injuries, an indicator of health and the leading cause of death for children in Canada and around the world.
Let me first tell you a little bit about Safe Kids Canada, the national injury prevention program of the Hospital for Sick Children. Our organization was founded in 1992 by Dr. David Wesson, a trauma surgeon at SickKids who saw the results of injuries and looked for a way to address the fact that they were largely predictable and therefore preventable. Safe Kids Canada is a leader in Canada, acting as a knowledge broker, bridging research to inform action through evidence-based strategies, information, and resources.
Through a stakeholder network across Canada, we have partners at the federal, provincial, territorial, and local levels. With industry, corporations, and community organizations, we are endeavouring to achieve our vision: fewer injuries, healthier children, a safer Canada.
Safe Kids Canada is encouraged to see the Canadian government's commitment to championing a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world's poorest regions. We congratulate the government for striving to make a tangible difference in maternal and child health by making this the top priority in June. As well, we were pleased to see that the government is looking to mobilize governments, non-governmental organizations, and private foundations alike.
In the recent Speech from the Throne, it was announced that:
To prevent accidents that harm our children and youth, our Government will also work in partnership with non-governmental organizations to launch a national strategy on childhood injury prevention.
Safe Kids Canada agrees with Canada's G8 agenda to focus on human welfare:
It is incumbent upon the leaders of the world’s most developed economies to assist those in the most vulnerable positions.
In his statement laying out the G8 agenda focusing on human welfare, Prime Minister Harper pointed out that “an astonishing 9 million children die before their 5th birthday”. This number is too high, and unacceptable. Equally so is the number of children's lives lost to injuries around the world. As a national injury prevention program, we understand the high value and strong effects that prevention can have on the health and welfare of children.
Also in his statement outlining Canada's G8 agenda, Prime Minister Harper pointed out that the vast majority, as much as 80% of deaths during pregnancy, are easily preventable. Furthermore, the Prime Minister expressed that far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple and inexpensive health care solutions.
Injuries are preventable. Prevention is a relatively simple and inexpensive solution to the loss of too many lives and the detrimental effects that injuries can have on a child's quality of life, as well as the lives of their families and communities.
According to the 2008 World Health Organization and UNICEF's World report on child injury prevention, 60% of all child deaths were the result of road traffic collisions, drowning, fire-related burns, falls, and poisoning. Other unintentional deaths accounted for 30%, including smothering, asphyxiation, choking, etc. In comparison, war accounted for 2.4% of deaths, and homicide for 5.7%. This is not unlike the picture we see in Canada.
Injuries are the leading cause of death and disability in the world, responsible for more than five million deaths each year. Approximately 830,000 children under 18 years of age die every year as a result of an unintentional injury. More than 95% of all injury deaths in children around the world occur in low-income and middle-income countries, although child injuries remain a problem in high-income countries, accounting for 40% of all child deaths.
It's essential that injuries are seen as an indicator of overall child health, as the WHO and UNICEF report points out:
...preventing child injury is closely connected to other issues related to children’s health. Tackling child injury must be a central part of all initiatives to improve the situation of child mortality and morbidity and the general well-being of children.
So how does Canada compare to the rest of the world? Canada ranks 18th out of 26 OECD nations for deaths from unintentional injuries. Had we enjoyed the rate achieved by Sweden, 2,665 more children would be alive today. Many experts believe that 90% of childhood injuries are preventable and that there are best-practice strategies, such as the use of bike helmets and car seats, that could be implemented immediately and make an impact on children's lives.
The annual burden that injury places on Canadians overall, our health care system and Canadian society, looks like this: over 13,000 deaths, 300 of which are children under the age of 14; over 211,000 Canadians who are hospitalized, 21,000 of them being children under 14; over three million emergency room visits; and over 67,000 Canadians permanently disabled.
We're looking at over $10 billion in health care costs and $19.8 billion in total economic costs, which is the same as the amount spent annually on pharmaceuticals across Canada. An estimated $4 billion is the economic burden of injury among children in Canada.
So why are these injuries the leading causes of death in Canada for children between one and 14 years of age? The vast majority of health care dollars are focused on treating disease, not prevention.
Given that preventable injuries are the leading cause of death to Canadian children, the amount of dollars spent are inverse to the scope of the problem. There's a misperception or misunderstanding that injuries are accidents that can neither be anticipated nor prevented. In reality, most injuries follow a distinct pattern and are therefore predictable and preventable.
Children live in a world built for adults and they have developing cognitive and physical abilities that put them at risk for injuries. The WHO and UNICEF report states that:
Over fifty years ago, one child injury expert declared that: “it is now generally recognized that accidents constitute a major problem in public health”.
Unfortunately, this statement remains true today.
As a part of a global movement of Safe Kids countries around the world, Safe Kids Canada supports the conclusion of the WHO and UNICEF report, which states:
Evidence demonstrates the dramatic successes in child injury prevention in countries which have made a concerted effort. These results make a case for increasing investments in human resources and institutional capacities. This would permit the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes to stem the tide of child injury and enhance the health and well-being of children and their families the world over. Implementing proven interventions could save more than a thousand children’s lives a day.
We think it's indisputable that injuries need to be a part of the overall child health strategy, both in Canada and worldwide. Currently Canada has the opportunity to be a leader in maternal and children's health by adopting certain strategies. In the area of injury prevention, this can begin by instituting the national injury prevention strategy, as outlined in the Speech from the Throne, and by adopting consumer products safety legislation that will allow mothers to know that the toys their children play with are safe.
Thank you for allowing me to speak with you today about the importance of injury prevention related to maternal and child health.