Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program

The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) is a bona fide agent for the KY Department for Public Health (KDPH) for community injury and violence prevention (IVP) practice and an independent research center at the University of Kentucky. In 2014, Kentucky (Ky) had the 5th highest unintentional injury fatality rate, and 12th highest motor vehicle fatality rate in the US. Ky’s child homicide mortality was 10% higher for children aged 0 to 4 years and 21% higher for children under the age of 1 year; the overall intentional injury fatality rate was 17% higher, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) fatality rate was 23% higher than US rates. The purpose of KIPRC’s Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program (KVIPP) is to build on our solid foundation of integrated IVP activities (e.g., implemented state injury prevention plan; our established injury control planning group (ICPG) that matured into an injury community implementation group [ICIG] called KSPAN; and implemented evidence based programs and policies). KVIPP’s overall goal is to decrease IVP morbidity and mortality rates through implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of evidence -based and -informed intervention programs to inform IVP policies, and practices. Through collaborations with key IVP evidence-based program implementation partners, KVIPP and partner resources will be integrated, program capacity will be enhanced, and organization, agency, state, and federal funding will be leveraged to increase KVIPP sustainability. KVIPP will: 1) Educate KDPH leaders and policy makers about public health (PH) approaches to IVP through assessment of current KVIPP IVP policies and priority strategies; quarterly KSPAN meetings; analysis of KVIPP intervention strategy data; meetings, webinars, presentations, website postings, social media, etc.; provision of science & evidence to policy makers; education on existing Ky policies/laws; evaluating PFA-related policies and laws; and supporting local health department public health (PH) accreditation; 2) Engage, coordinate, and leverage other KDPH and external partners and ICRCs through participating with CDC technical advisors on evaluation activities; implementation organization meetings; establishing interagency agreements with other CDC-funded programs; enhancing representation of other Ky CDC-funded IVP programs in KSPAN; e) updating KSPAN charter; f) participating in all South2Southwest meetings; maintaining KSPAN membership; and supporting Safe Communities; 3) Enhance Ky Injury plan and logic model for all 5 PFAs (TBI, child abuse and neglect, motor vehicle crash injuries, IPV/SV, and older adult falls) through refining KVIPP IVP strategies with partners; updating Ky’s Injury plan; working with CDC to enhance our logic model; producing a detailed evaluation plan; e) expanding implementation; and producing a technical assistance (TA) plan for our implemented strategies; 4) Implement 8 evidence-based IVP strategies: a] Dias PAHT education program; b] Safe Sleep program; c] GDL law improvement; d] Checkpoints parent-teen agreement program; e] teen drive mass media campaigns; f] CPS education and distribution program; g] Green Dot program; and h] FallsTalk/FallScape program, across 5 PFAs (TBI; Child abuse and neglect; IPV/SV; MVC injuries; and falls among older adults); 5) Develop an evaluation plan reflecting process, impact, and outcome measures; 6) Disseminate KVIPP program surveillance & evaluation information to stakeholders and use to inform continuous quality improvements; and 7) Enhance KVIPP IVP surveillance systems to capture IVP data.