Helmet use amongst equestrians: Harnessing social and attitudinal factors revealed in online forums

Equestrian activities pose significant head injury risks to participants. Yet, helmet use is not mandatory in Australia outside of selected competitions. Awareness of technical countermeasures and the dangers of equestrian activities has not resulted in widespread adoption of simple precautionary behaviors like helmet use. Until the use of helmets whilst riding horses is legislated in Australia, there is an urgent need to improve voluntary use. To design effective injury prevention interventions, the factors affecting helmet use must first be understood. To add to current understandings of these factors, we examined the ways horse riders discussed helmet use by analyzing 103 posts on two helmet use related threads from two different Australian equestrian forums. We found evidence of social influence on helmet use behaviors as well as three attitudes that contributed towards stated helmet use that we termed: “I Can Control Risk”, “It Does Not Feel Right” and “Accidents Happen”. Whilst we confirm barriers identified in previous literature, we also identify their ability to support helmet use. This suggests challenging but potentially useful complexity in the relationship between risk perception, protective knowledge, attitudes, decision-making and behavior. Whilst this complexity is largely due to the involvement of interspecies relationships through which safety, risk and trust are distributed; our findings about harnessing the potential of barriers could be extended to other high risk activities

Capturing community experiences in the 2015 Sampson Flat fire: Report for the South Australia Country Fire Service

The Sampson Flat fire in January 2015 was the most destructive fire in the Adelaide Hills for more than 30 years, burning 12,569 hectares of public and private lands with losses including 24 homes, 146 other structures, 5 businesses and much livestock and fencing. Following this fire, the CFS commissioned CQUniversity through the BNH CRC to undertake research on the community’s bushfire experience focusing on bushfire safety, the CFS Community Fire Safe program and information and warnings. The research used both quantitative data from online and CATI telephone surveys, and qualitative data from face-to-face or telephone interviews. Participants from fire affected and fire threatened areas were recruited by the CFS through their electronic and community networks

Sampson flat community bushfire experiences

After a major bushfire impacted communities less than two kilometres from Adelaide’s suburban edge in January 2015, the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) commissioned this research to explore three key questions: what factors affected residents’ planning, preparation and actions on the day; the influence of CFS Community Fire Safe groups on bushfire safety; and the effectiveness of information and warnings for people living in the rural/urban interface. The approach followed studies conducted after other major bushfires. The findings were similar, however they provided some new insights, including that although the majority of people felt physically prepared for a fire, only half felt emotionally prepared for the impacts of the fire and its aftermath. Just over one quarter of respondents had a written bushfire survival plan (a strong result compared with the average seen in previous studies of five percent) and nearly 90% had had a discussion about what to do in the event of a bushfire. Being part of a Community Fire Safe group had a positive impact on both planning and preparation. This project showed that the collective learnings from other post-fire studies and the actions being taken by CFS to implement these learnings are being translated into actions in the community