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American Family Children's Hospital and Pediatric Services

ThinkFirst Injury Prevention

Contact Information
 
(608) 265-0738
ThinkFirst logo
American Family Children’s Hospital cares first and foremost about keeping children safe and healthy. Community outreach programs, such as ThinkFirst, address the critical issues that jeopardize our children’s safety.
 
The ThinkFirst program is a national program that provides children with new, culturally and age-appropriate materials on injury prevention. Unfortunately, traumatic injuries, many of which are preventable, are the leading cause of death of young children in Wisconsin. The best cure for traumatic injury is prevention.
 
American Family Children's Hospital hosts the Madison chapter of ThinkFirst. ThinkFirst activities include safety presentiaons at area grade schools and other community events stressing the importance of having fun while protecting oneself by "thinking first" and using protective equipment before an injury occurs.
 
The ThinkFirst Injury Prevention program, a classroom- and community-based program, has proven to be an effective means of delivering injury prevention education to our young children. Injury prevention messages that are shared in the classroom include:

Additional topics include:

  • Motor vehicle safety
  • Sports and recreation safety
  • Avoidance of violence
  • Being safe when you play
  • Safety within the home and at school
  • The brain and spinal cord: How they work

These messages are delivered by a healthcare provider affiliated with the American Family Children’s Hospital. By educating and supporting our young children to make safer choices, we will continue to reduce the rate of traumatic death and injury.

 

ThinkFirst is a national foundation with a mission of preventing the nearly 500,000 brain and spinal cord injuries that occur each year in the United States. Children and teenagers suffer many of these preventable injuries, and they are the primary beneficiaries of ThinkFirst's message of safety: you can have a fun-filled, exciting life, without hurting yourself if you "ThinkFirst" and use your mind to protect your body.

 
Nationally, more than 8 million young people have heard the ThinkFirst message.
 
Contacting ThinkFirst

 

To schedule a ThinkFirst presentation at your school or with your group, please call (608) 265-0738.

 

The Need for Injury Prevention

  • The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control reports that traumatic brain injury accounts for nearly 3,000 deaths and 29,000 injuries that require hospitalization annually in the United States
  • 11,000 Americans suffer severe spinal-cord injuries each year
  • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the number one cause of death and disability in children and young adults
  • An estimated 183,000 to 230,000 people are currently living with spinal cord injuries in the United States