Public health: Community action programme 1999-2003 on injury prevention, EHLASS incl.

OBJECTIVE: this proposal seeks to establish a programme on injury prevention for the period from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2003 the aim of which is to contribute to public health measures which seek to reduce accidents by: - encouraging dissemination and more efficient application of prevention techniques recognized by experts, - encouraging the general capacity of public health bodies to establish prevention actions. SUBSTANCE: In the framework of the programme, the objectives and actions to be implemented are as follows: 1) accidents affecting children, young adults and elderly people: actions seeking to help reduce the incidence of injuries from home, school and leisure accidents by an improved application of recognized prevention techniques; 2) suicide: actions seeking to help reduce the frequency of injuries resulting from self-inflicted harm by an improved application of recognized prevention techniques; 3) capacity as regards injury prevention: strengthening the capacity of public health bodies to set up prevention activities: . networks: creation of networks dedicated to the development of new approaches or innovative methods, exchanges of materials, guidelines and handbooks, organization of training activities, . campaigns: dissemination of information about prevention campaigns in Member States, assessment of their impact and transferability (data base), organization of competitions to identify the best injury prevention campaigns, organization of parallel campaigns in the Member States, development of basic publicity materials, . data about injuries: joint approaches to data definition, better recording of place of occurrence, behavioural aspects, etc.; application of relevant results of the International Collaborative Effort on Injury Statistics; examination and improvement of the coverage of existing data collection systems; inclusion of additional modules in existing Community-wide surveys; identifying the need for surveys; creation of a data base of surveys, . technical investigations of injury risk factors: collaboration between institutions with specialized knowledge; inventory of existing institutions, . consultation and cooperation: support for formal and informal meetings of public authorities, seminars, etc., . activities to increase the use which public health bodies can make of other Community policies for injury prevention: raising awareness of Community programmes and helping to set up transnational associations. Implementation: the Commission is to ensure implementation of the programme in close cooperation with the Member States. it will cooperation with the institutions active in this field. In the management of this programme it will be assisted by an advisory committee consisting of representatives of the Member States; Consistency and complementarity: the programme must be implemented in consistency and complementarity with the other relevant Community actions; International cooperation: the programme is open to participation by the associated countries of central and eastern Europe and Cyprus and Malta; Monitoring and evaluation: the Commission must ensure the monitoring and continuous evaluation of the programme. It will present an evaluation report to the European Parliament and the Council during the third year of the programme. A final report will also be submitted to Parliament and the Council on completion of the programme; Budget: ECU 1.3 million for the first year (the financial framework for the following four years will be set after the establishment of the next financial perspective). �