To schedule a visit by the CARES Safety Center, click here.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and the Baltimore City Fire Department launched the Johns Hopkins CARES Safety Center in 2004 to keep children safe from unintentional injury, the leading cause of death for children nationwide. The mobile safety center is a forty-foot vehicle built as a house on wheels, with fun, interactive exhibits and low-cost safety products. It visits Baltimore neighborhoods to teach parents and caregivers about the injury risks children face at home and ways to make the home a safer place. It was created through a partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Maryland Science Center, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and Johns Hopkins Children’s Safety Center, in addition to the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Center for Injury Research and Policy and with input from community advisors. The CARES Safety Center resembles a typical home with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and stairway to illustrate potential hazards and preventive measures. For example, an onboard smoke generator and heating elements installed in a door simulate the conditions inside a home during a fire. Trained instructors from the Bloomberg School and Baltimore’s fire department use interactive exhibits in each of the rooms to teach parents and children how to prevent burns, falls, strangulation, poisoning and other unintended injuries in their homes and neighborhoods. The vehicle is also equipped with safety products, including car safety seats, bicycle helmets, safety gates and cabinet locks, which are offered for sale at below-retail costs. To watch a six-minute long video of CARES, click here . For a calendar of upcoming community events, click here. Current operating costs are covered through a generous three-year grant from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Grants from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health allowed faculty at Johns Hopkins to evaluate the impact of the mobile safety center and its utility as a dissemination vehicle for lifesaving safety products. Founding sponsors of the mobile safety center include BP, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. The vehicle was constructed by Lifeline Shelter Systems Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, and the educational exhibits were installed by Phoenixx Design Associates of York, Pennsylvania. back to top >>>
Low-income children under age six suffer injuries at a rate twice the national average, according to a Center study conducted in Baltimore City (Bishai et al., 2002). Lack of access to affordable safety products and information on their use can be significant barriers that families confront. To address this critical need, the Center partnered with the Johns Hopkins Department of Pediatrics to develop the Children's Safety Center. The CSC opened in 1997 as the first-of-its-kind, hospital-based safety resource center in the United States. Safety experts at the Johns Hopkins Children's Safety Center work with both parents and health care providers every day, answering questions, providing advice, and offering services and safety products in an effort to reduce unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death among children. Located in the Johns Hopkins Children's Center adjacent to the Pediatric Emergency Department, the CSC is a home-like environment where families can try a variety of home safety products, receive free personalized safety education, and purchase low-cost safety products (e.g., smoke alarms and batteries, cabinet locks and latches, stair gates).
A 1999 Center study found that when pediatricians talked to families about the CSC and those families actually visited, more safety practices were observed in the home compared to families who had not visited the CSC (Gielen et al., 2002).
The CSC has continued as a community service project and is open to all Johns Hopkins visitors. Since its inception, it has served more than 10,000 visitors and distributed thousands of safety products.
Replication and Dissemination
The CSC has served as a model for addressing pediatric injury prevention. In response to national and international requests for technical assistance, the CSC team produced The Johns Hopkins Children’s Safety Center: A Replication Guide and a promotional video, Prescription for Safety: The Johns Hopkins Children’s Safety Center. To order the replication guide click here for our request form and follow the directions for mailing or faxing the form to us.
For more information about the CSC, contact Eileen McDonald at emcdonal@jhsph.edu.
As a nonprofit community service, the CSC needs to solicit support each year to continue its lifesaving services. The CSC receives support from the Center for Injury Research and Policy, and from the Department of Pediatrics. To make a donation to the CSC, please click here. Citations:
Bishai, D; McCauley, J; Trifiletti, LB; McDonald, EM; Reeb, B; Ashman, R; Gielen, AC. (2002). The burden of injury in preschool children in an urban Medicaid managed care oganization. Ambulatory Pediatrics, 2(4): 279 - 283. Gielen, AC; McDonald, EM; Wilson, MEH; Hwang, WT; Serwint, JR; Andrews, JS; Wang, MC. (2002). Effects of improved access to safety counseling, products, and home visits on parents’ safety practices. Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, 156: 33-40. back to top >>> In 2006, the Harriet Lane Clinic moved into its new home, the David M. Rubenstein Child Health Building on the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus. This move made the CSC’s location convenient for the families who receive their pediatric primary care at Harriet Lane. As these families were and continue to be a priority population for us, we worked with Department of Pediatrics leadership and faculty to secure space in the new clinical area for a safety center dedicated to Harriet Lane families. In July 2008, Safety Lane will open in the Constellation Energy Children’s Safety Center space. Health educators for Safety Lane will be provided through an innovative collaboration with Priority Partners, the medical insurer of the majority of Harriet Lane families. Safety Lane service will mirror those offered at the CsC and CareS. back to top >>> |
