Örebro University host to new WHO centre for safety promotion

Örebro University is joining the World Health Organisation's (WHO) network for injury prevention and safety promotion. A collaboration agreement has been signed under which the university will offer communities, on a national as well as international level, advice and assistance in the field of injury prevention and safety promotion.

Activities involve research within the public health field and efforts to reduce the number of accidents and injuries in for example schools, hospitals, homes and on the roads.

- Accidents are a major public health threat all over the world. What we want to achieve is to raise awareness of the problems and create safer environments for human activity and interaction, says Koustuv Dalal, Associate Professor in public health science and Director of The Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (CIPSP) at Örebro University.

New support centre

The WHO Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion (WHO CCCSP) at Karolinska institutet, Sweden, is a global coordinator of research and prevention work according to WHO's Safe Communities model. The concept has been introduced in 90 countries. The WHO CCCSP has collaboration projects in over 50 countries, working together with some ten academic institutions.

Örebro University's CIPSP has implemented, or is in the process of doing so, injury prevention programmes in more than 20 countries world-wide. With the signing of this agreement, CIPSP becomes the organisation's first Affiliate Safe Community Support Centre in Sweden (the second in Scandinavia). The International Safe Hospital Network, with the objective of developing safe environments in hospitals, will, among other things, be coordinated from Örebro .

- This is a major step for public health research at Örebro University. This way, we are contributing with knowledge within practical public health work at the same time as we are creating greater opportunities for more researchers and PhD students when it comes to international collaboration, says Charli Eriksson, professor of public health at Örebro University.