Last week I had an opportunity to present the Safe Saskatchewan/Mosaic Potash Business Case for Injury Prevention to the Saskatchewan Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) Among other things, the Saskatchewan Chapter is active in fostering educational and professional development opportunities to risk managers and others within the risk management and insurance community. The topic of last week's gathering was &"slips and falls" so the Business Case provided some good context to subsequent presentations and discussions on this subject which accounts for the greatest piece of our province's economic burden pie. Based on Smartrisk's Economic Burden Study, an estimate of the cost of falls to the Saskatchewan economy is $212 million per year and accounts for 36% of all injury costs. The timing of this discussion around falls was particularly appropriate considering we are now up against additional slip, trip and fall hazards with the snow and ice in our great province... -27 degrees Celsius today with a wind chill to -35 degrees Celsius... mind you it's a dry cold. :) I just love this province!
While RIMS is all about applying their practice in an organizational setting, I'm pretty certain their principles could apply to an individual. Each of us has his or her personal risk tolerance level and on an ongoing basis, we sub-consciously assess the risk and then move forward (or not) based our risk tolerance. The challenge comes when we move forward without mitigating that risk in some way or another and then, an injury occurs... and from a male perspective in assessing that risk we often forget that, as Toby Keith says: "I ain't as good as I once was!
Wikipedia defines Risk Management this way: "...the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events." What I really like about this definition is the "followed by economical application of resources" part that I know many people overlook. Why else would unintentional injuries be at epidemic proportions in our province and throughout Canada?
Therefore, one of the answers to preventing injuries seems quite simple: we need to close the loop on assessing risks by investing in resources to manage and defend against the potential of an injury event occurring. Coupled with our belief that injuries are predictable and preventable, we have the opportunity for huge gains in the quality of our own lives, the lives of our families and the lives of the people in our communities - - - and - - - to realize huge returns on our personal investment in health and safety.
By the definition, are you truly managing the risks in your personal life?