RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

November 15, 2007
NEW Home Safety MANAGER AT RoSPA SCOTLAND

Saving lives and reducing injuries in homes across Scotland is the aim of RoSPA Scotland’s new Home Safety Manager.

Elizabeth Lumsden, who has been with RoSPA for 13 years, including the past three years as Road Safety Manager for Scotland, has taken up her new role at the charity’s Edinburgh office.

She will partner with other organisations to co-ordinate a Home Safety programme that is targeted at reaching the most vulnerable groups and which uses strategies proven to have positive outcomes. Her work will benefit greatly from the recent Memorandum of Understanding between RoSPA and the Chief Fire Officers Association Scotland, which enables both organisations to work more closely.

Part of Elizabeth's role will include the roll-out of Scotland's pioneering Child Safety Strategy, which has been written as part of a wider project to prevent unintentional injuries to children and young people across Europe. It is intended that the strategy, which sets out priority injury issues in Scotland, suggests injury prevention programmes and identifies clear lines of responsibility for the work, will be formally launched in Edinburgh on December 6.

Elizabeth, of Bo’ness, near Falkirk, said: “Unintentional injury is one of the main causes of death and is the most common cause of emergency hospital admissions in children aged under 15 in Scotland. Road accidents remain the leading cause of death in this age group, but we also know that children aged from one to four-years-old are far more likely to be injured in the home than anywhere else.

“Of course, people at every stage of life can be injured in home accidents. Latest figures show that almost four times as many people are admitted to hospital as a result of an injury sustained in the home compared with on the road. As we get older, falls become a common occurrence and the over-75s are especially at risk of being hurt in this way.”

She continued: “I am looking forward to my new role, and especially to encouraging prevention programmes that that are based on reliable evidence of best practice.

“There is no need to go overboard and wrap everyone up in cotton wool - injury prevention is about helping to ensure that our homes are as safe as necessary for us to live active lives.”

For more information about RoSPA Scotland’s Home Safety work, see www.rospa.com/homesafety/scotland/