Injury prevention is part of the stated mission at Shepherd Center.
Efforts are focused on preventing injuries related to distracted driving, falls and diving.
Listen in as Emma Harrington, MSPS, talks about Shepherd Center's devotion to the prevention of injuries.
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Injury Prevention: An Important Part of Shepherd Center’s Mission
Featured Speaker:
Emma Harrington, MSPS
Emma Harrington, MSPS, is the director of injury prevention and education services at Shepherd Center. Previously, Emma started the injury prevention program at Grady Memorial Hospital in the Trauma Department. She holds a master of education degree in international education policy from Harvard University. Originally from Boston, Emma is a licensed social studies teacher. Transcription:
Injury Prevention: An Important Part of Shepherd Center’s Mission
Melanie Cole (Host): Injury prevention is part of the stated mission at Shepherd Center. Efforts are focused on preventing injuries related to distracted driving, falls, diving, anything that might cause brain and spinal cord injuries. And here to help us with that today is Emma Harrington. She’s the director of injury prevention and education services at Shepherd Center. Welcome to the show, Emma. Tell us a little bit about the injury prevention mission at Shepherd and why you’re so involved in what people can do to try and prevent some catastrophic injuries.
Emma Harrington (Guest): Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. Injury prevention is an integral part of our mission here at Shepherd. We really focus and strive to get people with temporary or permanent disability caused by injury disease to rebuild their lives with hope and independence and dignity, and a large piece of that is trying to, in a way, put ourselves out of business, to get people to avoid these catastrophic injuries altogether. Injury prevention is a huge part of what we do. We look at why and how people get injured, how they end up at Shepherd, and what we can do to prevent all that.
Melanie: So, how and why do people get injured, and how do they end up at Shepherd?
Emma: Sure. The number one cause, motor vehicle crashes. As we are looking at that, we see that a lot of that is due to distracted driving. We hear a lot about texting and driving—in the media, that’s a huge push right now—but we found that it’s more than texting while driving. It’s talking on the phone while driving, even Bluetooth. Bluetooth has been shown to have the same sort of distractions as drunk driving. We really try to push that. We do a program called End Distracted Driving, where we talk about all the distractions in the world that happen while you’re in the car, and we talk about the main point of being in a car is to drive, and that’s the only thing you should be doing and not using your cell phone whatsoever and to avoid eating in the car, drinking in the car, all of that, because motor vehicle crashes are our number one. We also see a lot of diving injuries, especially in the summer and especially with young men. There is an epidemic of young men diving into shallow water, diving into ocean waves that’s enough to break your back.
Melanie: Wow! How scary for parents. It’s really all of our biggest fears, Emma, is those kinds of things. As far as distracted driving, do you think that right now, the awareness of texting and driving, having your friends in the car while you’re driving as a teenager, just being too busy with your Starbucks in your hand, do you think the awareness is out there? Do we need to raise it just a bit more?
Emma: I think it’s starting to get there. I think the main problem is not the teenagers that we tend to blame all the time. It’s a teenage problem. I think it’s the parents. I think it’s us, I think, for modeling bad behavior. I think if you’re the mom driving the kids to school in the minivan with your Starbucks, with your cell phone, with all the other distractions going on in the world. I think that’s where we need to start modeling behavior and we need to put all those distractions aside for the school run, for everything that our kids are looking at us for. Our kids pick up all of our bad habits, and I think it’s up to us to really push the message that when we give the keys to our teenagers, this is what is expected and this is the standard that we hold ourselves to.
Melanie: That’s great information, and I think parents need to be really fervent about making sure that their children do understand this. What about things like motorcycle accidents? Do they increase the risk for brain injury or spinal cord injury?
Emma: Absolutely. Motorcycles, that’s a tough one. A lot of people love their motorcycles. They love the freedom of it. Before this job, I worked at a trauma center, and one of our trauma surgeons told me he would never get on a motorcycle because it’s like driving down the road with no seatbelt on and no cage around you. I agree with that, but I do understand we’re human and some people love motorcycles, and if that’s the case, then I fully recommend wearing a helmet. There has to be no exceptions to the rule. And not just one of the brain buckets. You need a full-faced helmet. You also need a jackets that have the spinal cord reinforcements in them—those are fabulous—and always to wear long pants and boots that come up high.
Melanie: Okay, that’s great advice. I do understand some people really love their motorcycles and they want to stay riding, but they feel that that freedom is taken away with their helmets, but you’re really advising helmets are absolutely crucial to helping make that a little bit safer.
Emma: They’re an absolute must. There is no way you should even get on a motorcycle or even a bicycle without a helmet.
Melanie: What about other things like ATVs, recreational vehicles, other things that could possibly cause these kinds of injuries? What’s your advice about using those? Because they’re fun, but they’re pretty dangerous.
Emma: ATVs are extremely dangerous, but there are quite a few tips to avoid injuries. You must always, first of all, be old enough to drive an ATV. We see in a lot of more rural areas, there’s young kids on ATVs that are way too big for them and way too powerful for these young kids to drive. First of all, it’s observing that no one really below 15 should be on an ATV. If you are, it has to be a much smaller, less powerful ATV. Now, when you’re on an ATV, again, having all the right equipment is paramount to avoiding injuries. Having the helmets, having all the protective gear, and learning how to ride one and learning how to respect vehicle. There are ATV classes, safety classes held everywhere for low cost that should be taken if you are going to enjoy those activities.
Melanie: What about trampolines and things? Back in the day, we used to stand around the trampoline if somebody was on it, and that was the protection if a kid fell off and fell on to their head. They just would fall on to another kid. Trampolines are so dangerous, and diving, diving into pools, diving into lakes. Speak about these things and what you want parents to know, Emma, about if they’re going to have these things around in their yards for kids to play with.
Emma: The thing that I try to push with parents is the liability issue. That seems to speak to parents. You have a massive liability when you have a pool in your backyard or when you have a trampoline in your backyard because the incidents of injury shoot right up. So, so does your insurance premium. That seems to speak to people sometimes more than the possibility of a catastrophic injury. When we talk about diving, it’s not just diving into shallow water. That’s incredibly dangerous in and of itself, but it’s also diving into oncoming waves and into the ocean, and we oftentimes have this image of beautiful summertime day where you’re running into the ocean, you dive under that wave. That is a major cause to break your back. That is one of the things that I really try and push. It’s not just the shallow water. You must never enter the water head firs. Go feet first. Breaking a leg is way better than breaking a back. That’s what we try to push when we talk about diving prevention: feet first every single time. When we talk about trampolines, if you’re going to have one, even though it’s a massive liability, have the safety gate around it, the ones that are high up and that you almost bounce off of. But as a nonparent, as a maybe one day parent, I would never have one.
Melanie: I wouldn’t either. I’m right there with you. Now, how important do you think it is educationally, Emma, for parents and/or kids to see patients that have experienced brain and spinal cord injury? Is that part of your educational program?
Emma: It absolutely is. Shepherd Center has created a brain and spinal cord injury prevention curriculum, where we are in Cobb County right now in 10 middle schools in the 7th grade. It’s a three-week curriculum, and it’s all about brain and spinal cord injury and teaching kids how to behave protectively with themselves and with others and to advocate for safety. So when they see a bunch of kids diving into a lake or a pond or a swimming well somewhere, that they say, “Hey, wait a minute. Not the best idea.” This injury prevention curriculum is in its third year, and we had a research company named MSTAR come in. It’s an Atlanta-based research company and they kind of proved that we were doing in three weeks’ time with these 7th graders was statistically significant in their behavior, in that change in their behavior to behave protectively towards themselves to avoid all these injuries. And an integral part of that curriculum is we have former patients from Shepherd with brain and spinal cord injuries go out and talk to the kids themselves. Because I can sit here all day long and talk to the kids, but that’s not going to have the same impact as someone their own age with this injury is going to have. It’s best practice to have peer-to-peer chat about this can actually happen to me. If it’s happened to someone my age who looks like me, talks like me, then it could definitely happen to me. So that is I think the best part of our curriculum that we do is we bring former patients and their case managers and their physical therapists and occupational therapists out to the individual schools and allow for time for the students to ask questions and for the former patients to tell their story. It’s therapeutic both ways, we’ve found.
Melanie: In just the last minute please, Emma, give parents and listeners your best advice about injury prevention and why they should come to Shepherd to learn more about injury prevention for brain and spinal cord injuries.
Emma: Shepherd Center is an absolutely amazing place. There’s a lot to learn from our patients here and from our former patients that are sometimes our best advocates. In terms of injury prevention, I would say come to Shepherd Center, and the message really drives home. You need to put those cell phones away. Always go feet first. Just pay attention to your surroundings and make good decisions for yourself so that you don’t end up a patient here.
Melanie: Great advice. Thank you so much. You’re listening to Shepherd Center Radio. For more information, you can go to shepherd.org. That’s shepherd.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.
Injury Prevention: An Important Part of Shepherd Center’s Mission
Melanie Cole (Host): Injury prevention is part of the stated mission at Shepherd Center. Efforts are focused on preventing injuries related to distracted driving, falls, diving, anything that might cause brain and spinal cord injuries. And here to help us with that today is Emma Harrington. She’s the director of injury prevention and education services at Shepherd Center. Welcome to the show, Emma. Tell us a little bit about the injury prevention mission at Shepherd and why you’re so involved in what people can do to try and prevent some catastrophic injuries.
Emma Harrington (Guest): Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. Injury prevention is an integral part of our mission here at Shepherd. We really focus and strive to get people with temporary or permanent disability caused by injury disease to rebuild their lives with hope and independence and dignity, and a large piece of that is trying to, in a way, put ourselves out of business, to get people to avoid these catastrophic injuries altogether. Injury prevention is a huge part of what we do. We look at why and how people get injured, how they end up at Shepherd, and what we can do to prevent all that.
Melanie: So, how and why do people get injured, and how do they end up at Shepherd?
Emma: Sure. The number one cause, motor vehicle crashes. As we are looking at that, we see that a lot of that is due to distracted driving. We hear a lot about texting and driving—in the media, that’s a huge push right now—but we found that it’s more than texting while driving. It’s talking on the phone while driving, even Bluetooth. Bluetooth has been shown to have the same sort of distractions as drunk driving. We really try to push that. We do a program called End Distracted Driving, where we talk about all the distractions in the world that happen while you’re in the car, and we talk about the main point of being in a car is to drive, and that’s the only thing you should be doing and not using your cell phone whatsoever and to avoid eating in the car, drinking in the car, all of that, because motor vehicle crashes are our number one. We also see a lot of diving injuries, especially in the summer and especially with young men. There is an epidemic of young men diving into shallow water, diving into ocean waves that’s enough to break your back.
Melanie: Wow! How scary for parents. It’s really all of our biggest fears, Emma, is those kinds of things. As far as distracted driving, do you think that right now, the awareness of texting and driving, having your friends in the car while you’re driving as a teenager, just being too busy with your Starbucks in your hand, do you think the awareness is out there? Do we need to raise it just a bit more?
Emma: I think it’s starting to get there. I think the main problem is not the teenagers that we tend to blame all the time. It’s a teenage problem. I think it’s the parents. I think it’s us, I think, for modeling bad behavior. I think if you’re the mom driving the kids to school in the minivan with your Starbucks, with your cell phone, with all the other distractions going on in the world. I think that’s where we need to start modeling behavior and we need to put all those distractions aside for the school run, for everything that our kids are looking at us for. Our kids pick up all of our bad habits, and I think it’s up to us to really push the message that when we give the keys to our teenagers, this is what is expected and this is the standard that we hold ourselves to.
Melanie: That’s great information, and I think parents need to be really fervent about making sure that their children do understand this. What about things like motorcycle accidents? Do they increase the risk for brain injury or spinal cord injury?
Emma: Absolutely. Motorcycles, that’s a tough one. A lot of people love their motorcycles. They love the freedom of it. Before this job, I worked at a trauma center, and one of our trauma surgeons told me he would never get on a motorcycle because it’s like driving down the road with no seatbelt on and no cage around you. I agree with that, but I do understand we’re human and some people love motorcycles, and if that’s the case, then I fully recommend wearing a helmet. There has to be no exceptions to the rule. And not just one of the brain buckets. You need a full-faced helmet. You also need a jackets that have the spinal cord reinforcements in them—those are fabulous—and always to wear long pants and boots that come up high.
Melanie: Okay, that’s great advice. I do understand some people really love their motorcycles and they want to stay riding, but they feel that that freedom is taken away with their helmets, but you’re really advising helmets are absolutely crucial to helping make that a little bit safer.
Emma: They’re an absolute must. There is no way you should even get on a motorcycle or even a bicycle without a helmet.
Melanie: What about other things like ATVs, recreational vehicles, other things that could possibly cause these kinds of injuries? What’s your advice about using those? Because they’re fun, but they’re pretty dangerous.
Emma: ATVs are extremely dangerous, but there are quite a few tips to avoid injuries. You must always, first of all, be old enough to drive an ATV. We see in a lot of more rural areas, there’s young kids on ATVs that are way too big for them and way too powerful for these young kids to drive. First of all, it’s observing that no one really below 15 should be on an ATV. If you are, it has to be a much smaller, less powerful ATV. Now, when you’re on an ATV, again, having all the right equipment is paramount to avoiding injuries. Having the helmets, having all the protective gear, and learning how to ride one and learning how to respect vehicle. There are ATV classes, safety classes held everywhere for low cost that should be taken if you are going to enjoy those activities.
Melanie: What about trampolines and things? Back in the day, we used to stand around the trampoline if somebody was on it, and that was the protection if a kid fell off and fell on to their head. They just would fall on to another kid. Trampolines are so dangerous, and diving, diving into pools, diving into lakes. Speak about these things and what you want parents to know, Emma, about if they’re going to have these things around in their yards for kids to play with.
Emma: The thing that I try to push with parents is the liability issue. That seems to speak to parents. You have a massive liability when you have a pool in your backyard or when you have a trampoline in your backyard because the incidents of injury shoot right up. So, so does your insurance premium. That seems to speak to people sometimes more than the possibility of a catastrophic injury. When we talk about diving, it’s not just diving into shallow water. That’s incredibly dangerous in and of itself, but it’s also diving into oncoming waves and into the ocean, and we oftentimes have this image of beautiful summertime day where you’re running into the ocean, you dive under that wave. That is a major cause to break your back. That is one of the things that I really try and push. It’s not just the shallow water. You must never enter the water head firs. Go feet first. Breaking a leg is way better than breaking a back. That’s what we try to push when we talk about diving prevention: feet first every single time. When we talk about trampolines, if you’re going to have one, even though it’s a massive liability, have the safety gate around it, the ones that are high up and that you almost bounce off of. But as a nonparent, as a maybe one day parent, I would never have one.
Melanie: I wouldn’t either. I’m right there with you. Now, how important do you think it is educationally, Emma, for parents and/or kids to see patients that have experienced brain and spinal cord injury? Is that part of your educational program?
Emma: It absolutely is. Shepherd Center has created a brain and spinal cord injury prevention curriculum, where we are in Cobb County right now in 10 middle schools in the 7th grade. It’s a three-week curriculum, and it’s all about brain and spinal cord injury and teaching kids how to behave protectively with themselves and with others and to advocate for safety. So when they see a bunch of kids diving into a lake or a pond or a swimming well somewhere, that they say, “Hey, wait a minute. Not the best idea.” This injury prevention curriculum is in its third year, and we had a research company named MSTAR come in. It’s an Atlanta-based research company and they kind of proved that we were doing in three weeks’ time with these 7th graders was statistically significant in their behavior, in that change in their behavior to behave protectively towards themselves to avoid all these injuries. And an integral part of that curriculum is we have former patients from Shepherd with brain and spinal cord injuries go out and talk to the kids themselves. Because I can sit here all day long and talk to the kids, but that’s not going to have the same impact as someone their own age with this injury is going to have. It’s best practice to have peer-to-peer chat about this can actually happen to me. If it’s happened to someone my age who looks like me, talks like me, then it could definitely happen to me. So that is I think the best part of our curriculum that we do is we bring former patients and their case managers and their physical therapists and occupational therapists out to the individual schools and allow for time for the students to ask questions and for the former patients to tell their story. It’s therapeutic both ways, we’ve found.
Melanie: In just the last minute please, Emma, give parents and listeners your best advice about injury prevention and why they should come to Shepherd to learn more about injury prevention for brain and spinal cord injuries.
Emma: Shepherd Center is an absolutely amazing place. There’s a lot to learn from our patients here and from our former patients that are sometimes our best advocates. In terms of injury prevention, I would say come to Shepherd Center, and the message really drives home. You need to put those cell phones away. Always go feet first. Just pay attention to your surroundings and make good decisions for yourself so that you don’t end up a patient here.
Melanie: Great advice. Thank you so much. You’re listening to Shepherd Center Radio. For more information, you can go to shepherd.org. That’s shepherd.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.