LHSC making homes safer for new families

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

May 1 , 2013

LONDON, Ontario – Going home from hospital with your newborn baby just became safer, thanks to an innovative new program at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The Home Safety Device Program, funded by Children’s Health Foundation, provides parents-to-be with a comprehensive safety checklist and a nine piece safety kit designed to reduce or eliminate preventable household injuries to children.

Approximately 3000 children a year are treated at Children’s Hospital, LHSC for injuries sustained in the home. As the designated Lead Trauma Hospital (LTH) for the Southwestern Ontario region, LHSC plays a leadership role in the specialized care of injured children. The program coordinates services to meet regional needs and participates in local, provincial and national programs related to education, research and injury prevention.

“Injury is the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in Canada and we know that most injuries are preventable," said LHSC Trauma Specialist Jane Harrington. "The goal of this program is to help new parents understand how to protect their children from being injured inside the home, and to give them tools to keep them safe,”

Safety kits are assembled by high school students looking to gain volunteer experience. They are distributed to expectant parents when they come into hospital for their 32 week check-up, and to new parents in the Mother-Baby Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital. In the future, they will also be given to parents of children two years of age and under who come into the Children’s Emergency Department with an injury received in the home.

“We have had a tremendous response from our nursing and clinical staff who are responsible for ensuring the kits make it into parents’ hands. As a hospital community, we are acutely aware of the importance of injury prevention, and thanks to the support of Children’s Health Foundation, this is one tangible way we can ensure that we are not seeing children come into our care with injuries that might have been prevented with a few simple precautions,” says Harrington.

The program anticipates distributing between 2800-3000 kits per year.

About London Health Sciences Centre

London Health Sciences Centre has been at the forefront of medicine in Canada for 138 years and offers the broadest range of specialized clinical services in Ontario. Building on the traditions of its founding hospitals to provide compassionate care in an academic teaching setting, London Health Sciences Centre is home to Children’s Hospital, University Hospital, Victoria Hospital, the Kidney Care Centre, two family medical centres, and two research institutes – Children’s Health Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute. As a leader in medical discovery and health research, London Health Sciences Centre has a history of over 65 international and national firsts and attracts top clinicians and researchers from around the world. As a regional referral centre, London Health Sciences Centre cares for the most medically complex patients including critically injured adults and children in southwestern Ontario and beyond. The hospital’s nearly 15,000 staff, physicians, students and volunteers provide care for more than one million patient visits a year. For more information visit www.lhsc.on.ca

About Children’s Health Foundation

Children’s Health Foundation is dedicated to raising and granting funds to support Children’s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre, Thames Valley Children's Centre and Children’s Health Research Institute. Since 1922, funds raised have helped deliver exceptional care and support for children and their families by providing specialized paediatric care, equipment, education programs, therapy, rehabilitation services and research. To learn more about how you can positively impact the health of children, youth and their families, please visit www.childhealth.ca.