Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center Receives Funding to Continue and Enhance Programs

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 19, 2011) — The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC), a partnership between the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, has received $2 million to be used over the next five years for violence and injury prevention and motor vehicle prevention programs.
 

The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has awarded funding to the program based at UK for continued work as part of the CDC Core Violence and Injury Prevention Program to maintain and strengthen their injury and violence prevention programs. 
 

"One of our main goals has been to work with our   statewide community injury planning work group known as KSPAN, which now includes more than 100 members, and develop the state injury and violence prevention plan," said Terry Bunn, director of the KIPRC and associate professor in the UK College of Public Health. "Our next step will be to implement the plan focusing on prevention in four priority areas with the highest injury rates which include child maltreatment, falls in older adults, teen motor vehicle injuries and prescription drug poisonings."
 

Kentucky is also receiving funding in one of the four key component areas -- motor vehicle prevention. The motor vehicle prevention component will aid in collecting and analyzing data geared to injury prevention in children under age 18 and promote child passenger and teen driver safety through the development and implementation of evidence-based policies and interventions, said Bunn.
 

"Although injury is a leading killer in all 50 states and the number one cause of death in people under 44, most injuries are preventable," Bunn said. KIPRC works to reduce injury through education, policy initiatives, public health programming, surveillance, risk factor analysis, direct interventions, and evaluation.
 

KIPRC was formed in 1994 to initiate and expand education, research, and training in injury prevention. In the past decade, KIPRC has been instrumental in expanding injury research and prevention activities in areas such as trauma care, community injury coalitions, prescription drug abuse, falls, and occupational injuries.

Media Contact:  Kristi Lopez, (859) 323-6363 or kristi.lopez@uky.edu