State of the Art Sessions

The goal of Spotlight Sessions are to provide a forum for focused and in-depth discussions on specific topics. Spotlight Sessions will address particular themes or consist of exploring work undertaken across international projects. Consisting of 3 to 4 panel speakers followed by a Q&A open floor discussion.

The speakers in a spotlight session work together to craft a 90-minute session which will be of great interest and benefit to the attendees of the conference.

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• Road Safety 

• Drowning Prevention

• WHS

• Sport and Recreation

• Falls

• Children

• Violence

• Policy

ROAD SAFETY:  Vision Zero by 2050 – How will we get there?

The first Decade of Action failed to reach the fatality reduction targets and in many countries severe injuries are on the increase.  The United Nations Global Plan for the 2nd Decade of Action for Road Safety has set the target to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030.  A number of countries have also set associated visions for zero road deaths by 2050.  With policy targets in place how will we actually get there and make sure no-one dies on the world’s roads?  Who is accountable and what will it actually take to halve road deaths and injuries by 2030?  What needs to happen to reach zero by 2050?  How will we get there in LMICs?  How will we get there in HICs?

Join our expert panel discussion as we roll up our sleeves and discuss the real road safety interventions and ACTIONS needed to ensure the targets are met? How we can overcome the implementation challenge in each area of safe system impact?  How can we transform multimodal transport and land use planning?  How can we ensure all new and existing road infrastructure is safe? How can we ensure existing and new vehicles and new forms of mobility are safe? How can we ensure safe road user behaviour? How can we optimise the post-crash response?  How can we mobilise the financing, legal frameworks, speed management, capacity development, equity and gender perspectives and new technologies needed to actually reach zero road deaths by 2050? 

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Presenters:

Gabby O'Neil 

Assistant Secretary, Head of the Office of Road Safety
Surface Transport Policy Division
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications

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Martin Small

Martin Small Consulting

Rita Excell
Executive Director 
National Transport Research Organisation - Ports and Airports Sector

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SPORT: Safe environments for sport and recreation: data driven policy and practice

There has been a rise in data collection in sport and recreation settings — not just for our elite athletes but also the everyday participant. But what happens next? How do we know if the data are ‘good’ and what do we do with the data once it is collected? In this State-of-the-Art session, we will hear from leaders in sport and recreation with expertise on the application of data for decision making. They will share how they have used data to create safe environments for sport and recreation participation.

There is also much to learn from our colleagues in other injury prevention settings. The broader #Safety2022 program offers a relevant array of cross cutting issues for sport and recreation researchers and practitioners to learn from including systems approaches, gender equity, child safety, climate change and product safety.

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Presenters:

Professor Caroline Finch AO
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)

Edith Cowan University, Perth

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Professor Paul Salmon

Director, Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems

University of Sunshine Coast, Queensland

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Cyndi Mendoza

Programs Director

Skateistan, South Africa

VIOLENCE: How do we address social determinants to reduce interpersonal violence?

Interpersonal violence is a major problem globally, with over 400,000 deaths per annum affecting people across the life course.  Many more suffer the impact of interpersonal violence through physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and neglect. Interpersonal violence is not random, and occurs at much higher rates among the most disadvantaged subgroups in societies with high levels of economic and social inequity. These inequities have widened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and sustainable population-wide reductions in violence will be difficult to achieve until they are reversed.

Social determinants such as economic inequality, finance, education, health, the built environment, and social context influence the likelihood of interpersonal violence.  Thus, while we have strong and growing evidence for the effectiveness of prevention strategies at individual, family and community levels, these need to be reinforced by societal-level strategies to modify these social determinants and buffer the population against their detrimental effects. This State of the Art Session will therefore explore interpersonal violence across the life stages and in low-, middle- and high-income settings to understand how the social determinants can be influenced to help then reduce the burden of interpersonal violence.   

The session will comprise a range of speakers providing a contemporary view, reflective of their background and work, followed by a panel session where you can ask questions and do a deep dive exploring this critical topic.

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Presenters:

Alexander Butchart
Prevention of Violence Coordinator Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention World Health Organization (WHO) Geneva, Switzerland

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Marilyn Metzler

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Graphic

Senior Analyst, Health Equity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta USA

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Professor Mark Bellis
Director of Policy, Research and Development for Public Health Wales, Bangor University
​Chair of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention

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Richard Matzopoulos
Director, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
Professor, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

FALLS: What must change to stem the global rise in falls in older adults?

One in three older adults fall at least once each year. Many of these falls have devastating consequences. Globally, the personal and health system impacts of falls in older adults are rising rapidly. This session will focus on solutions and features leaders from around the world. We will hear from the World Health Organization and researchers with expertise in community, hospital and residential care settings. The session will address the urgency of fall prevention in lower- and middle-income countries and for disadvantaged people in higher income countries. This session will help us all do more to prevent falls.

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Presenters:

Professor Ngaire Kerse

Chair in Ageing Well, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, New Zealand

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Professor Tan Maw Pin
Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumper

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Professor Pip Logan

School of Medicine, Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing, University of Nottingham, UK

WHS: Are Safety Management Systems more good than bad?

Safety management systems (SMS) have been an integral and important part of conventional safety management since the 1960s.

In the 19th Century, as the industrial revolution opened up more opportunities in commercial work, the working conditions and environment at that time led to significant injuries and deaths. The introduction of the Factory Acts in the UK in the early 19th century led to significant development in the occupational health and safety areas both in research and in fighting for improved health and safety outcomes for workers.

The introduction of SMS was intended to act as a business administration structure for an organization to effectively meet its legal obligations under applicable occupational/work health and safety laws and have evolved over the last 60 years. SMS are structured based on the scope of the organization's operations and therefore its risk profile, what resources are required to manage work-related health and safety risks effectively.

The continual implementation of SMS over the past 60 years in businesses has resulted in improved working conditions from the health and safety perspective with significant incident and injury reductions. New technology and increased employer and employee participation and engagement have been seen with a continued focus on SMS. However, the concept and theory of SMS have not had significant improvement since 1961, although through the recent publication of ISO 45001 there is an improved SMS standard.

However, with the enforcement of SMS implementation, it has been evident, that workers are often treated as the issue causing incidents, leading to copious amounts of paperwork and evidence gathering to meet the core exercise in the SMS implementation. More often, the SMS and OHS have been considered compliance exercises, and the management of risks is not dynamic but focuses on paperwork completion.

This Start of the Art Session will consider the following:

1. Is the implementation of SMS still relevant to improving OHS outcomes today?

2. Are we focusing on the right things in the SMS? OR Should we shift our focus?

3. Should workers be the centre of the OHS solutions rather than the problems and issues? How is this practiced in reality at work?

4. And ultimately, are SMS more good than bad?

DROWNING: Drowning Prevention 2030 – setting an agenda for post-UNGA resolution success

An interactive spotlight session brings together drowning prevention experts from across stakeholder groups to identify key challenges and opportunities and envision future approaches and pathways post UNGA Resolution on Global Drowning Prevention A/RES/75/273.

Speakers will provide thought-provoking presentations outlining key elements and visions for the drowning prevention field over the next decade. Areas will include strategy, multisectoral action, research, and policy agendas. A panel will dissect these ideas, engage the audience, and form conclusions

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Presenters:

David Meddings

Department of the Social Determinants of Health

World Health Organization

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Kelly Larson

Bloomberg Philanthropies

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