Bottom Line: Reaching Beyond Traditional Safety Messaging

By Meri-K Appy, President of the Home Safety Council
May/June 2008

Nearly half of the respondents in a national survey conducted by the Home Safety Council admitted they had not take a single action at home to prevent the leading causes of injury – falls, poisoning and fires/burns.

However, 89 percent said they had spent money on items to improve the look or comfort of their homes. While 61 percent of respondents had spent more than $100 on such items, only 17 percent had spent the same amount on home safety products.

When asked why they hadn’t made safety improvements, nearly a quarter said they couldn’t afford to and 42 percent said they were unsure what actions to take. These data, which were collected as part of HSC’s 2008 Safe Haven survey, reveal two keys to the home injury problem: People do not fully appreciate their actual risk of injury at home; and they do not realize there are simple and inexpensive steps they can take to reduce it.

These aren’t new revelations. Fire and life safety educators are very familiar with both apathy and ignorance when it comes to home safety. Despite this, you are reaching a sizeable number on the topic of fire. Of the leading risk areas, the highest percentage of adults surveyed (37 percent) had taken action to prevent fire and burns.

That’s great news. But educators can do so much more to save lives. The public is not yet doing all they can to prevent the leading causes of injury in American homes. Overall, only one-quarter of those who had taken action made an improvement to reduce falls (number one), and only 16 percent to reduce poisoning (number two).

MySafeHome.org
The Home Safety Council, with primary funding from the National Fire Sprinkler Association and Lowe’s, recently introduced a dynamic new tool that will go a long way to help you increase education about fire safety and reach beyond this traditional messaging. MySafeHome.org is an innovative online program that uses state-of-the-art 3D and graphic animation to help adults understand injury risks room by room.

Perhaps more importantly, My Safe Home also spells out the things people can do to reduce the risk of those injuries. In most cases, these are simple steps that don’t cost a dime. Safety products and technologies are also highlighted of course, but there are ways to improve injury prevention that virtually every family can do immediately.

MySafeHome.org is the perfect adult educational prop because it’s available online and on demand – if you have a computer with Internet hook up you can use it as part of your educational presentations. There is no cost and your constituents are also free to use it from their home computers. Consider adding a direct link to MySafeHome.org from your agency’s Web site.

Be sure to visit MySafeHome.org regularly, as this new Internet site is changing and expanding at a rapid pace. Please let us know what you think about this exciting new teaching tool.

June is Home Safety Month
Another valuable way to inspire the people in your community to make their homes safe havens is Home Safety Month. HSC works nationally to generate publicity about common home dangers and prevention methods.

We also offer members of the Expert Network free materials to do the same locally,
including:

• Home Safety Month Poster
• Disaster Preparedness Brochure
• Home Safety Brochure
• Illustrated Hand Outs

For classrooms, businesses and manufacturers, HSC provides a range of Hands on Home Safety resources in quantities they can share. Expert Network members receive a special discount on these teaching materials.

We hope you’ll reach out to corporations, smaller companies and others in your community to participate in Home Safety Month. Download or order Home Safety Month materials now so you’ll be well armed this summer to expand your messaging to include prevention from falls, poisoning, drowning and other risks.

Sign up to become an Expert Network Member – it’s free!

Visit MySafeHome.org now!

June is Home Safety Month!