6 home features that help

How safe are our homes? Three out of four serious injuries to young children occur in the place you would think that they would be the safest – their own home.

Kidsafe are asking members of the public to check their home against the following list of important safety features.

1. Pools and spas fully fenced, with well maintained, self-closing gates.
   Why? Young children drown quickly and silently. Around 20 children under five drown each year in unfenced pools or pools with poorly maintained fences or gates.
2. Hot water from the bath taps at a safe 50șc.
   Why? Hot water burns like fire. Many Australian homes have hot water coming from their taps at a temperature that can severely burn a child's skin in one second.
3. Barriers such as stair and fire guards in place to keep children away from hazards.
   Why? Falls down stairs and steps are common and because young children are 'top heavy' head injuries can often occur. Babies and toddlers don't understand "hot". They are attracted to bright colours – like the flames of a fire – and may touch hot surfaces while simply exploring their world.
4. Child resistant latches fitted to cupboards where dangers like medicines, cleaners, matches and lighters are stored.
   Why? Young children are curious and don't understand danger. Telling them "not to touch" is not enough to keep them safe. Dangerous products need to be stored away safely.
5. Smoke alarms installed with fire brigade advice, and checked regularly.
   Why? House fires continue to claim Australian lives every year. Young children are at risk as they need adults to rescue them in time. Smoke alarms provide a warning that may be critical to survival.
6. Play areas fenced off from the street and the driveway.
   Why? Cars and kids don't mix. Young children have no fear of cars, and are not easily seen by drivers. Nearly every month a toddler is killed after being reversed over in a driveway. Kidsafe estimates that if these six safety features were in place in all Australian homes, they would prevent more than half of all home injury deaths among children under five, and thousands of children from the trauma of a hospital visit.

Home safety checklist

Causes of injury

The Northern Territory Division of Kidsafe conducted an Injury Surveillance Program from July 1998 to July 1999, which allowed Kidsafe to form a comprehensive outline of the problem areas for both fatal and non-fatal childhood injury as well as the particular circumstances of events leading to those injuries. The study identified important causes of NT injury.

A cause of injury is important if it:

1. Has a high burden of disease - This means that it is a common cause of death, admission or presentation to hospital or it causes long term disability.
2. It is preventable by a cost-effective intervention - Injuries are usually prevented through primary prevention health promotion approaches which include: technological, legislative, organisational, economic, motivational, or educational strategies.
3. It is viewed by the community as being important

We worked out the Top 9 important causes of injury in the NT by ranking the causes of death, admission and presentation to Royal Darwin Hospital in order of frequency from 1-9. If the frequency was the same for two causes of injury we gave them the same ranking.

We then considered the strength of evidence of the preventable nature of the injury (using a standard classification system) and ranked the likelihood of preventing the injury as high, moderate or low. Unfortunately we did not have the resources to consider community opinion as to the importance of the injury. In the following sections we answer some of the commonly asked questions about the important Top 9 causes of injury.