Safe Saskatchewan is a coalition of private sector and public sector founding partner organizations who share a common vision — a safer Saskatchewan for all of our citizens. By possessing the belief that personal health and safety is a right for the people of this province, Safe Saskatchewan collaborates with organizations across the province to lower the instance of unintentional injury. The vision of a safe and healthy community is attainable through Safe Saskatchewan's mission of working together to eliminate unintentional injuries in Saskatchewan.
Here is a little more on Safe Saskatchewan that you may not have known about:
There are currently nine founding members whom have all made multi-year resource commitments to Safe Saskatchewan:
IPSCO
Mosaic Potash
Prairie Mines and Royalty Ltd.
Saskatchewan Health
Saskatchewan Safety Council
SaskFerco
SaskPower
SGI
WorkSafe Saskatchewan
Equally important to Safe Saskatchewan are the contributions made by their over 25 endorsing partners, who can enable the Safe Saskatchewan vision by offering other resources and support.
Safe Saskatchewan Targets Farm Injury
A reduction in farm and ranch injury is one goal that has taken top priority on Safe Saskatchewan's agenda. Safe Saskatchewan, as a member of the Saskatchewan Alliance for Safety and Health in Agriculture (SASHA) and with the help and support of other agricultural injury prevention organizations across the province, wants to put an end to the suffering felt by Saskatchewan's farming families.
Surprisingly, agriculture is the fourth most dangerous occupation in Canada. Many residents of Saskatchewan would be shocked to learn that on average, over 200 hundred people in this province alone are hospitalized from farm injuries and 18 die from preventable injuries every year. More than 200 people with severe disabilities due to injury continue to farm in our province. That's part of the reason that Safe Saskatchewan and its founding partners promoted Canadian Agricultural Safety Week's 2007 theme of "Protect your moving parts!"
The human cost of pain and suffering from these injuries is immeasurable. In dollars and cents, it is estimated that farm injury costs the province of Saskatchewan close to $42 million every year. When you consider the cost of a hospital stay, lost work time, insurance claims, and damaged equipment — this all comes down to one thing. Injury is a huge drain on the agricultural industry in this province, financially and emotionally.
Safe Saskatchewan challenges farmers and ranchers across the province to incorporate simple injury prevention strategies into their daily routines. Safety precautions don't need to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money. Simple things like turning the engine off on machinery before servicing or dismounting the equipment, buckling the seat belt when in a tractor with rollover protection, and taking the time to slow down during busy seasons can save untold injury and heartbreak.
No More Accidents!
Misuse of the word "accident" in conversation and in the media leads people to believe that injury is beyond their control. It is just something that happens — "an act of fate". The fact of the matter is that almost all unintentional injuries are completely predictable and preventable. All you would have to do is to think of the last time you or a loved one was injured to realize that the injury could have been prevented.
Media across the province is being asked to stop using the word "accident", when reporting on events, instead calling it what it is... injury, collision, incident or crash.
An important ingredient to preventing injuries is to influence people's attitudes away from the commonly held belief that injuries are "accidents" and towards the substantiated belief that injuries are predictable and preventable. There are hundreds of precautions that can be taken to avoid injury and Safe Saskatchewan wants to shift the public's focus towards prevention of unintentional injury instead of centering on the outcome.
This campaign aims to teach people to recognize the risks in their everyday lives and eliminate them in order to prevent injuries. You can help spread the word by discussing prevention of injury with loved ones, friends and colleagues. Changing the way our province's residents view injury can't happen overnight, but with your help we can start to adjust the thinking!
What's New?
Safe Saskatchewan Media Camp
Canadian Agricultural Safety Week took place this year between March 14-20 with the theme "Protect your moving parts!" being widespread in events across the country. The theme was meant to raise awareness among farming families about the seriousness of pinch points, crush injuries, entanglements and the importance of protection.
To help support this nation- wide awareness week, Safe Saskatchewan held a farm injury awareness camp at South Country Equipment in Regina to challenge media from across the province to accurately report on farm related injury and to banish the word "accident" from their vocabulary.
The day included hands-on exhibits that showed how quickly fatigue, carelessness and rushing can lead to a life altering injury. Media was also given the chance to speak to Merv and Lynn Copeland, a Saskatchewan couple whose lives were changed forever when Merv's hands were caught in a bailer over 30 years ago. Merv and Lynn have dedicated their lives to farm safety awareness and education and regularly speak to community groups across the province.
Website
The Safe Saskatchewan website has been launched with the help of project partner SaskTel. The site can be found at www.safesask.com. The website provides facts and ways to prevent injury as well as current news and links to other injury prevention agencies across Canada. Safe Saskatchewan looks forward to developing this new tool and in using it to help prevent unintentional injuries.
Injury Prevention Presentations
There is no doubt that 2006 was a busy year for Safe Saskatchewan. Gord Moker, Safe Saskatchewan's Program Coordinator gave over 50 presentations to groups all over the provinces, meaning 2000 more people now have Safe Saskatchewan on their radar. Since Safe Saskatchewan's inception, Gord has delivered over 140 presentations involving close to 4500 residents of our province. Not your average "safety talk" Gord's presentation has been called "just right" and "interesting, informative and personal" by audience members across the province. If your organization would like to book a presentation with Gord or for more information, please go to www.safesask.com/contact_us/index.html.
SaskPower Joins Safe Saskatchewan
A press conference was held March 16th to announce and welcome Safe Saskatchewan's newest founding partner, SaskPower to the fold. The participation of SaskPower marks the ninth founding partner to join the Safe Saskatchewan vision. "I believe we can make a difference, working together toward one common goal: To make safety part of everything we do" says Glenda Barton, Chief Safety Officer of SaskPower "On behalf of SaskPower's team of 20 safety professionals and our 2,400 employees — we look forward to working with you to build a safer future for the residents of this province."
Safety in the News
The Leader Post, CTV Regina (CKCK), Global Regina, CKRM and The Western Producer all made an appearance at our media camp and press conference on March 16th. A big "thank you" goes out to these outlets for their support and interest in making Saskatchewan an injury free zone!
Golden West Radio, with radio stations all over Saskatchewan, completed an interview with Gord Moker, Program Coordinator of Safe Saskatchewan that was run with other injury prevention messaging during Canadian Agricultural Safety Week.
What's Next?
In the next few months, Safe Saskatchewan will be working on a number of initiatives. They include:
- Assist SASHA in developing the provincial farm injury prevention strategy
- The beginning of the Safe Saskatchewan radio messaging campaign to spread the word on prevention
- Watch out for our selection of editorials to be placed in newspapers across the province
- Further the development of the provincial seniors' falls injury prevention strategy.
