News

July 5 is National Injury Prevention Day

On July 5, 2021, Parachute the Canadian injury prevention charity, will release the fourth Cost of Injury in Canada report that quantifies the cost of injury from a societal perspective, including costs to the health-care system, to productivity and to the people behind the numbers: individuals, families and communities.

According to Statistics Canada, injury is the leading cause of death for Canadians aged one to 44, ahead of cancer and heart disease. Injury is the third leading cause of death overall in Canada, after cancer and heart disease.

In one year:

• 17,475 Canadians died
• 61,400 Canadian suffered disabilities, temporarily or permanently impacting their potential for economic independence
• 231,530 Canadians were hospitalized
• 4.6 million Canadians visited an emergency department (ED)
• The Canadian health care system was charged $20.4 billion in direct costs.
• And Canadians spent $29.4 billion in total economic costs. That’s $80 million PER DAY.

Preventable injuries resulted in 333,971 potential years of life lost from one year of injury deaths. Unlike the majority of chronic diseases, injuries kill people at a young age, stealing them from their families and friends and removing them from contributing to society. Parachute’s mission is for Canadians to live long lives to the fullest. Given injuries a leading cause of death, it stands to reason that to fulfill our mission, we need to prevent those injuries that cause death and serious injury.

The fact is, virtually all of these injuries and deaths, and the resulting costs, could have been prevented. Money is spent dealing with injuries in hospitals, consuming staff time and services. Through increased primary prevention efforts, we can keep people from being seriously injured and out of hospital. Those resources, if not needed to treat injuries, could be allocated to other important needs in the health system. In the past year, I’m sure more critical-care beds would have been welcomed by our nurses and doctors.

On July 5, over 60 landmarks will light up in Parachute green in recognition of National Injury Prevention Day. You can see the full list at https://parachute.ca/en/program/national-injury-prevention-day/light-up-canada/. Please help us to get the message out by sharing and supporting key messages on social media using the hashtags #ParachuteNIPD and #CostOfInjury2021.