The project has offered assistance to community groups such as the Wattle Range Road Safety Committee and any other parties. The fifth and perhaps most challenging aspect has been targeting health professionals. As professionals we are inconsistent in our application of preventative strategies across the range of health issues we deal with. We now accept cardiovascular preventative interventions such as blood pressure treatment, cholesterol lowering and smoking cessation as core business but do not apply similar levels of effort to injury prevention. This is understandable because we have not yet developed the professional self-confidence and skills to know where and when to productively intervene in an area which is often perceived to be some other authority's patch.
Productive interventions are most likely to develop in cooperative partnerships.
Sharing this curiosity with our patients as partners can be enlightening for us both, and does not presuppose that we have to impart a solution. In contrast, known effective interventions may not be being applied. Some at risk groups still don't use seat belts, a zero cost intervention. Opportunities can sometimes be constructed in a consultation to remind a person under 45 that their greatest risk of death is from injury, perhaps on the road or in the first months of certain occupations. Health risk assessments, routine or for travel, must not overlook injury.