Capacity building
Prevention of violence and injuries requires multidisciplinary approaches and a workforce of trained professionals. WHO Europe is developing capacity in the area of injury prevention and control with a modular training course developed by WHO in collaboration with some of the world’s best experts in the field.
The TEACH-VIP is a tool used to train professionals and practitioners in the field of public health to better apply key injury prevention and control principles, to contribute to the development of preventive programs and policies, design effective surveillance systems, and evaluate intervention programs and policies.
WHO has also developed a global mentoring programme for violence and injury prevention: MENTOR-VIP. The programme is used to address skill development and is another valuable tool for capacity building.
Capacity-building workshops have been held for Violence and Injury Prevention focal persons to enhance the leading role of the health sector in mounting a multisectoral response to injury prevention. Train-the-trainer workshops for Russian-speaking participants and participants from the South-eastern Europe Health Network were held in 2007 and 2009, respectively. WHO has provided support for the translation and local adaption of TEACH-VIP in Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Spain, Tajikistan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Introducing the material into health professional curricula and training trainers have contributed to the sustainability of the educational process in many countries. Specific capacity-building workshops have also been held for prevention of violence related to alcohol in the Baltic and Nordic countries and in those of the South-eastern Europe Health Network. Injury surveillance workshops are being held for the South-eastern Europe Health Network countries. In total, TEACH-VIP activities have been held for participants from 39 countries, and an estimated 8500 participants have been trained.
Seven network meetings have been held for health ministry focal persons in violence and injury prevention.
