Measuring Risk in Peterborough

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death and injury in children and youth in Canada. The Peterborough Risk Watch Network aims to reduce the rate and prevalence of injury for children and youth in the city and county of Peterborough, Ontario. The project aims to locate local injury data sources and create a rubric tool that will be used to evaluate the injury data sources for their potential applicability with injury prevention initiatives. The project involves an environmental scan, personal discussions, and the creation of a rubric assessment tool. The environmental scan involves looking for organizations that deal with children and youth in Peterborough and to see if they possess injury information. The number of injury data sources pertaining to Peterborough children and youth is limited. The rubric assessment tool developed is digital and user friendly. The data sources' usefulness is limited based on the type of information contained does not go into great detail. The future recommendations based on the project outcomes are to investigate a greater variety of organizations for injury data, ensure a greater breakdown of data once collected, and the creation of a centralized child and youth injury data system.