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safety council responds with program a well administered safety council is always cognizant of the need to obtain maximum utilization of funds and staff time jo be certain of this it must be sure it is attacking priority problems that the affected group or geographic area can be isolated and effective methods to establish communica tion are or can be employed outlined below is a successful case history of how one such problem was dealt with by the metro safety council fortytwo per cent of the 48 pedestrian fatality victims in metropolitan toronto population 2 3 million in 1975 were senior citizens this statistic stood out like a sore thumb in an analysis of traffic accident statistics for that year it was a completely unac ceptable figure since persons age 65 and over constitute only 10 per cent of metros population clearly the situation called for action and the metro safety council responded by developing a program to remedy the root causes of the problem funds provided when the trustees of metro safety council were alerted to the problem they immediately guaranteed adequate funding to develop and operate an effective campaign with this en couragement the volunteers who serve on the safety councils traffic safety committee went to work they wisely decided that there was more to the story than the statistics revealed and that they must talk to seniors to find out what their problems were as pedestrians subsequent con versations revealed that the main problems seemed to be inadequate time at signalized intersections lack of complete understanding of how to use metros pedestrian crosswalks and insufficient knowledge of the motorists and the automobiles limitations two types of personal contact campaigns with senior citizens were tried one was inviting seniors to a rally at a central point the program at the rally consisted of entertainment by local personalities lunch a safety presentation and discussion with a prize draw at the conclusion two of these were tried each attracting over 600 people following these experimental rallies their effectiveness and per capita cost factors were studied it was clear there were heavy negative aspects such as too much staff time required to organize each rally too many volunteers needed at each rally to make them practical on a frequent basis survey of attendees indicated entertainment and prospect of a days outing was a prime motive for attending high per capita cost with such a large audience real personal rapport was not possible between attendees and speakers a large segment of the senior citizen population said they could not attend because the travel distance was too great at the same time that ex perimentation was going on with the rallies we were trying visits by experienced speakers at senior citizen club meetings to carry out this aspect of the experiment we were fortunate in securing the services of two very competent and active retired safety specialists who were happy to be compensated on a modest per diem arrangement at the outset two basic presentations of ap proximately 45 minutes duration were worked out one using film as the visual aid the other using slides the filmslide portion of the presentation took about 12 minutes the remaining 30 minutes was devoted to telling the audience about the specific pedestrian problems in metro toronto the best ways for seniors to use signalized and pedestrian crosswalks the danger such hazards as weather and darkness and the drivers problems after several field trials the presentation was refined each lecturer was encouraged to adjust his format until he felt com fortable with it and was satisfied with the impact the presentations to individual clubs provide many pluses the per capita cost is very low staff time required to ad minister and solicit engagements is minimal senior citizen clubs are eager to welcome a feature for a meeting an excellent mailing list of seniors clubs is maintained by metro social services bureau there are about 300 senior citizen clubs in metro that hold regularly scheduled meetings the clubs generally serve a neighborhood consequently travel is not a problem having carried put the tests of the two methods and analyzed all factors with the emphasis on impact we were ready to go full out with club engagements reaching the target the most productive method of soliciting engagements has been through mailings advising of the program at about threemonth intervals to all seniors clubs we blue cross program may minimize need for use of hospitals during the thirties due to the inability of many families to pay for the cost of hospital treatment thousands of people were forced to wait until treatment became literally a matter of life and death blue cross changed that when it launched its prepaid hospital care program in ontario the non profit nongovernment organization came into operation in 1941 to assist people to meet hospital bills and provide hospitals a source from which to recoup their costs today blue cross continues to offer health programs to individuals and employee groups for dental drug and a wide range of extended health care benefits which sup plement basic government- sponsored health coverage including the payment of almost 30 million dollars last year to hospitals for use of semiprivate accommodation by blue cross subscribers paradoxically ontario blue cross in recent years has also been conducting a campaign which if it worked to the ultimate degree would result in reduced need for hospitals impossible maybe so but what is wrong with a program geared to making everyone so fit that hospitals become almost redundant the ancient chinese not ontario blue cross were the originators of the preventive medicine idea hundreds of years- s another case of coconu t a i hope hes covered by the blue cross health plan whlleouuidecanada ago the chinese only paid their doctors when they were fit when they became ill they stopped paying their physician his job was tp prevent rather than cure sickness walter cannon director of blue cross in ontario recently commented that one of the more significant changes in the health field in recent years has been the increasing awareness of the need for preventive health care at blue cross our effort in this regard has centred on the production and distribution of publications dealing with everything from nutrition and fitness to mental health and stress from raising the modern baby to coping with growing old the increasing acceptance of this health education program across canada has been most gratifying the most recent publication issued by ontario blue cross in the public- interest- is a 100 page illustrated book entitled fit for fun by swedish author karl gullers fit for fun gives the swedish approach to keeping in shape it opens with the question a swedish male heart ticks 53 years longer than its canadian counterpart why it then outlines a practical commonsense approach to exercise and eating other publications offered free of charge by ontario blue cross in the interest of modern preventive health are stress food fitness the alcoholic generation in the middle drug abuse and childhood a copy of these books can be obtained by writing public relations department ontario blue cross iso ferrand drive don mills ontario m3c 1h6 are now finding that an increasing percentage of bookings is developing by wordofmouth we recognized the fact that any successful campaign must have supporting elements a pedestrian safety pamphlet was produced it is distributed at all meetings and directed to more than 15000 senior citizen dwellings that are administered by govern ment housing agencies two pedestrian safety tv spots were commissioned and distributed to all local tv and cable outlets our research showed that senior citizens depend heavily on tv for entertainment and informa 0 regular press releases were issued pointing out the problenvand reporting improved results as attained they received excellent use in the months of early darkness reflective dangle tags were distributed at each meeting 300000 quiz placemats were distributed by the metro- restaurant association pointing out the motorists responsibilities for pedestrian safety during 1976 125 presentations were made to senior citizen clubs reaching a total audience of 7000 seniors we distributed 25000 pedestrian safety pamphlets 5000 reflective dangle tags and 5000 lady take care pamphlets extensive exposure was given to tv spots there was excellent public reaction to the project as a result the number of pedestrians aged 65 or over killed during 1976 was 1014 less than were killed in 1975 this project will be continued and broadened and efforts will be made to stimulate user interest the pedestrian aspect is con stantly being updated to meet changing conditions the growth and membership turnover of senior citizen clubs is sufficiently high to make more than one visit per year practical to stimulate bookings and attendance the travel and hospitality industry have made draw prizes available for all attendees one of the prizes drawn at vearend was a one- week allexpense paid trip to the bahamas for two similar prizes have been offered for 1978 a second program is now operating it attacks another metro senior citizen problem deaths and injuries from ac cidental residential fires this target too will be hit with printed and media material the program will be used primarily for second visits to clubs metro safety councils aim through 1978 is to maintain our current momentum and to try and stabilize the gains made we will take similar steps in dealing with other danger areas in which a disproportionate per- centage of citizens in a particular category are victims