DS 14 Build Partnership Strategy Among Local Drowning Prevention and Response Teams
Develop and implement a local partnership strategy between community organizations working to prevent and those who respond to drowning incidents to improve drowning surveillance, enhance data sharing, and encourage data-informed prevention efforts.
Spectrum level: Changing Organizational Practices Fostering Coalitions and Networks
Evidence level: Medium
Rationale:
Developing and implementing a local partnership strategy between community organizations and those who respond to drowning incidents can Improve data collection, data variables, reporting, sharing, analysis, and feedback, as well as collaboration on programmatic efforts. Additionally, this addresses the need for surveillance infrastructure and boosting engagement of local and state partners in order to pursue policy changes (e.g. legislative action), develop better public educational materials, present topics and messages to the media, and assist prevention programs in monitoring and improving their interventions.
Anticipated Impact:
After implementing this recommendation, you can expect to experience the following outcomes.
- A local partnership strategy between community organizations working to prevent and those who respond to drowning incidents leads to a greater potential to create, empower, and energize local and state partnerships.
- With detailed and trackable information local partnerships among community organizations and first responders leads to greater opportunities to successfully pursue policy changes (e.g., legislative action), develop better public educational materials (e.g., there have been 5 drownings on area lakes in the past 3 years; wear life jackets while boating on this lake), present to the media the topics and messages that need attention, and assist prevention programs in monitoring and improving their interventions.
Evidence:
Water safety experts agree that data for monitoring health events and prevention efforts are challenging and need coordinated approachs for both collection and use. Arizona, as well as several other states, have coalitions of interested parties to shape data collection and prevention programs. For instance, in Marcopa County, Arizona, the public health system helped monitor death rates among 0-4 year olds before and after passage of a state pool barrier law. Additionally, Arizona surveillance data has routinely been used by partners when talking with the media about drowning prevention.
Evidence Sources:
CDC Surveillance Resource Center https://www.cdc.gov/surveillancepractice/index.html
Arizona Injury Prevention Plan: https://www.azdhs.gov/documents/prevention/womens-childrens-health/reports-fact-sheets/injury-prevention/2012-2016-az-injury-surveillance-prevention-plan.pdf
Drowning and submersion-related hospitalization in Arizona and Maricopa County, 2016 – 2020: https://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/public-health-statistics/index.php#publications
Espitia‐Hardeman V, Paulozzi L. Injury Surveillance Training Manual. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2005. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/participant-guide.pdf
High Risk Populations Addressed:
All populations can benefit from implementation of this recommendation.
Evaluation Metrics:
Indicators of long-term impact:
- A state or local coalition with partnerships between responders, public health, and intervention programs both providing data for monitoring drowning events and prevention efforts
- Detailed and trackable information gathered by the state and local partners
- Policy changes (e.g., legislative action) are pursued
- Better public educational materials (e.g., there have been 5 drownings on area lakes in the past 3 years; wear life jackets while boating on this lake) are developed
- Media is presented topics and messages that need attention
- Prevention programs in monitoring and improving their interventions are assisted
Indicators of intermediate impact:
- The development or improvement in state and local partnership engagement around improved drowning surveillance (e.g., standardization, compilation, analysis, and use of data) is monitored
- Evidence of improved data collection, analysis, dissemination, and use (by programs or the media) is monitored
Indicators of initial impact:
- Partnerships and coalitions (e.g., # of meetings, statement of agreement on needed data elements, coordination of prevention messages, identification of policies to advance, etc.) are developed and enhanced
Implementation:
Consider the following to ensure successful implementation:
- Seek input from potential data reporters (e.g., first responders, hospitals) as well as data users (e.g., programs) as to the drowning event variables to be collected.
- Generate reports at a frequency and geographic level (state or local level) that inform intervention programs and partners about risks and topics deserving attention.
- Generate reports that provide information concerning trends so that partnering local organizations see the positive impact of their efforts or can modify their intervention and approach to reduce drowning risk factors.
- Develop a state-level, umbrella organization, to give valuable advice and help coordinate efforts conducted at the local level
- Coordinate the timing and location of events (e.g. there are many prevention messages and educational events in the summer months) to help avoid conflicts and embrace valuable media coverage of these events
Challenges to Implementation:
When implementing this recommendation, you might encounter challenges related to the following factors.
- Funding may be a challenge for coalitions and alliances.
Potential Facilitators:
The following factors might facilitate the implementation of this recommendation.
- States and local areas already have existing drowning prevention coalitions (e.g., AZ, CA, FL, TX) which could be used as models for new areas and could help each other improve data collection, analysis, dissemination practices, and intervention programs.
- Funding may facilitate meaningful action in communities or states with a small, motivated coalition.
GAP Recommendation:
The strength and number of current drowning prevention partnerships by state is not known. A formal Network Analysis in each of the 50 states could show the number and strength of partnerships in each state. Network Analysis is a proven tool to assess strengths and weaknesses of networks and partnerships.