Morbidity and mortality rates Essay Example for Free

Morbidity and mortality rates Essay Current statistics on road accidents including morbidity and mortality rates for 17-25 year olds In 2011 statistics showed that there were 1,292 deaths, 279 of which involved people aged 17 to 25. This is a decrease as last year it was reported that 336 people between 17 and 25 were killed on Australian roads. The biggest killer of young drivers is speeding and around 80 per cent of those killed are male. Discuss the reason why young people are overrepresented in road accidents A 17 year old driver with a P1 license is four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a driver over 26 years. Young drivers are over represented in all fatal crashes, including drink driving and fatigue. Despite making up only 15 per cent of drivers, young drivers represent around 36 per cent of annual road fatalities. Generally young drivers tend to be willing to take more risks on the road such as driving at night carrying passengers, breaking the speed limit and wreck less driving. With regards to road safety explain why injury has been selected as a national health priority area The national priority areas are selected by the government to eliminate inequities in health status. The priority population groups are those which are shown by research to have had a significant high incidence. Injury has been selected as a priority health issue as it is the principal cause of death in people under 45. Injury is also a leading cause of mortality, morbidity and permanent disability in Australia. ‘Injury accounted for over 1 in 20 of all hospitalisations in Australia in 2007-08, with almost 426,000 injury hospitalisations. ’ (Australias health 2010 pages: 196-198, June 2010) In regards to road safety, injury has been selected due to the rate that people on Australian roads are being injured or killed more regularly. Not only do crashes on the road injure the people in the car, road crashes can injure pedestrians and people in other cars. On average it costs the Australian government 27 billion (National Road Safety Strategy) dollars a year to look after the deaths and injuries of road accidents. Due to the significant costs to the Government road injury has been seen as one of the biggest killers of Australians, due to this things such as the National Road Safety Strategy have been constructed in order to prevent road injuries. Analyse the roles that different levels of government and various organisations have in reducing road trauma In reference to road safety there are many aspects that need to be covered on the different levels of government. The different levels in Australian government are Federal government, State and Local. The Federal government is responsible for distributing and supplying the governments below it with funds to fix roads, put in more speed cameras and have more police to patrol the roads. The State government is in charge of then taking that money they have been given by the Federal government and distributing it to the Local governments, they need to take into account which Local governments are in need of the most financial help. The local government is usually then given the money they require for the private sectors underneath them, the Local government then distributes funds to private sectors who must find someone to fix the roads and put speed cameras or police to do things such as random breath tests. Usually organisations are made to support the laws of the road, for example RADD is an organisation made up of recording artists, actors and athletes to portray the message that drink driving is not â€Å"cool† Organisations such as RADD are made to target younger people in specific and generally between the ages of 17-25 which have the highest rate of drink driving on Australian roads. Evaluate how the draft national road safety strategy has used the 5 action areas of the Ottawa charter in promoting road safety The five action areas of the Ottawa charter are developing personal skills, creating supportive environments, strengthen community action, reorienting health services and building healthy public policies. The areas of the Ottawa charter is based upon the social justice principals, this means the Ottawa charter is working to make health resources an equal right. Developing personal skills involves â€Å"enabling people to learn (throughout life) to prepare themselves for all of its stages and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is essential. This has to be facilitated in school, home, work and community settings. †(Better Health Channel) The draft national road safety strategy has tried to meet this area by â€Å"This means we all need to change the way we think and act in relation to road safety. We need to respond directly to our long-term vision by asking questions such as what would we need to do to prevent serious crashes in this situation? While our achievements may be modest in the first instance, the transformation in our approach will lay down the foundations of the Safe System during the life of this strategy. † Creating Supportive environments involves â€Å"the protection of the natural and built environments and the conservation of natural resources must be addressed in any health promotion strategy. (Better Health Channel) This is used in the draft national road safety strategy as they have the aim to try and involve the community in trying to reserve the lives of wildlife and the natural environment from road trauma. Strengthening Community Action involves â€Å"community development draws on existing human and material resources to enhance self-help and social support, and to develop flexible systems for strengthening public participation in, and direction of, health matters. This requires full and continuous access to information and learning opportunities for health, as well as funding support. † (Better Health Channel) They have included this in the road safety strategy in the following lines â€Å"While individual road users are expected to be responsible for complying with traffic laws and behaving in a safe manner, it can no longer be assumed that the burden of road safety responsibility simply rests with the individual road user. † â€Å"Road safety responsibilities also extend to various professional groups, as well as the broader community. Develop personal skills involves â€Å"enabling people to learn (throughout life) to prepare themselves for all of its stages and to cope with chronic illness and injuries is essential. This has to be facilitated in school, home, work and community settings. † (Better Health Channel) Reorient health services involves â€Å"the role of the health sector must move increasingly in a health promotion direction, beyond its responsibility for providing clinical and curative services. Reorienting health services also requires stronger attention to health research, as well as changes in professional education and training. †