White Earth collaborative Elder Home Fire Safety Project.

Among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), the elderly are at higher risk of residential fire/burn mortality. Between 1984-1996 among the Bemidji, Minnesota AI/AN who were 65 years or older, the age-adjusted residential fire/burn mortality rate was 8.9 per 100,000. This was over six times the United States All Races rate of 1.4 per 100,000. In January 2000, the White Earth Public Health Nurses, Home Health Aides, Community Health Representatives, and Environmental Health joined forces to form the ¿White Earth Home Safety Collaborative Team.¿ The Team, created to complete comprehensive health and safety needs assessment surveys and safety device installations in elders¿ homes, received standardization training in conducting home safety surveys, resident education, and smoke alarm installations. After surveying 210 homes, the team found that over 50 percent did not have at least one operational smoke alarm. Ultimately, two hundred and forty smoke detectors were installed and residents provided with information on how to maintain and test them. A spin-off of the project was the formation of a community injury prevention committee to pilot development of ¿Elder Safe,¿ an American Indian-specific fire and fall safety program funded by the United States Fire Administration.