The Review, Vol. 5, Issue 4(Oct.-Dec. 2007)

October-December 2007 Quarterly Newsletter Volume 5, Issue 4

"The Review"
Office of Child Fatality Review
Partners in Prevention: How Can We Work Together For SUCCESS?!
The mission of the Child Fatality Investigation Program is to promote and facilitate teamwork in the investigation of suspicious child death. This multi-disciplinary approach generally involves local teams comprised of law enforcement, children's services, the medical examiner/coroner and the district attorney. A second tier of team members should include EMS, hospital/medical staff, caregivers and school officials. Jurisdictions using a team approach find that there is less conflicting action on the part of agencies and much better information-gathering. In the next several issues of the newsletter, we will be looking at the specific roles played by these various agencies in a team-based investigation. Not every case of child death involves emergency medical personnel; however, in cases where children are observed, treated or transported by EMTs, the input of these professionals is invaluable. In additional to offering information about the health status of the affected child at the scene, EMTs can provide law enforcement with the initial statements made by caregivers and bystanders, describe the scene and affect of the parties, and present valuable insight and strategy into the initial investigation. INVESTIGATIVE TIPS: Always speak to EMTs in person and early in the investigation--don't wait for the brief written
Child Fatality Review report that will follow calls in most cases. Always check for 911 calls from the scene regardless of whether the child was
attended to or transported by emergency personnel. These recordings are kept only briefly in some jurisdictions and often
County of the Year: contain important statements by the parties.
If your jurisdiction is interested in receiving information about this subject or about multi-disciplinary teamwork on child death investigations, consider enrolling in the Child Fatality Investigation Program. Your membership in the program entitles the jurisdiction to free training, support and advice. Contact Rachelle Carnesale, J.D. at racarnesale@dhr.state.ga.us.

Autumn is Here!! Safety Tips for Friends and Family!
October 2007: Crime Prevention Month SIDS Awareness Month Spread the word about lifesaving tips that can help reduce the risk of stillbirth, SIDS, suffocation and accidental infant deaths. Your local television, radio, and newspaper outlets can be helpful in supporting your efforts (www.firstcandle.org). Fire Prevention Week (October 7-13)

November 2007: Great American Smokeout Month

Inside this issue

Encourage your friends and colleagues to quit smoking. Secondhand smoke is responsible for Collaboration Corner 1 respiratory infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis), asthma attacks, and middle ear in-

fections in young children (www.cancer.org). Smoking also increases premature births, SIDS Autumn Safety Tips 1

risk, and birth defects in infants.

Prematurity Awareness Month Support the March of Dimes by encouraging access to comprehensive employee assistance

Community Connections 2

programs, creating pregnancy-friendly worksites to reduce physical stress, and provide educa- Welcome New Staff! 2

tional opportunities and seminars relating to healthy pregnancies at worksites.

Child Abuse Protocol 2

December 2007:

Panel Profile Page

3

Hand Washing Awareness Week (December 2-8)

Prevention Efforts 3

Nose picking and eye rubbing perpetuate respiratory illness! Encourage children to keep their Upcoming Events 4

hands clean and reduce their risk of foodborne illness, respiratory infections and flu. Your CFR Timelines

4

actions are your best prevention against illness this winter!

Community Connections: Contributions from the Field
My name is Rosa Chen and I work at Kennestone Hospital in Cobb County. I've been a nurse for over 25 years. Of those 25 years, I've taken care of babies for over 20 years. I'm a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. I take care of sick and premature babies. There are things we can do to protect our babies and avoid tragedy. Prevention is the key word. During pregnancies, we should educate families on prenatal care. There are a lot of resources available. For example, the county health department offers a lot of services. It is very important for a woman to be under a doctor's care during this critical time in a baby's development. Follow medical advice: no drinking alcohol, no drug use, no cigarette smoking, etc. to avoid premature deliveries. The alternative to this is a lifelong responsibility of caring for your handicapped children. Once you have decided to have your baby, you're obligated to give birth to a healthy baby. You can't slack off or you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Safety is another way of protecting your precious little ones. 1. Never leave them unattended. 2. Keep small objects out of their reach. 3. Chemicals/ pesticides should be locked up. Be careful what you spray and where--only in corners. Make sure the
chemicals are safe for indoor use and ventilate the house well. I also recently learned from my neighbors that you can use chewable citrus vitamin pills to kill ants. I've used them and they seem to be working. 4. When out in public places, don't rely on other people to watch your little ones. For example, when in an area where there is a body of water, don't count on the lifeguard. They have to watch so many children that they can't be counted on to give your child the attention needed for his or her safety. I once took my children to a public swimming pool when they were about 7 and 5 years old. While watching my own children attentively, I happened to glance down and saw a child about 4 years old floundering in the water. I grabbed her out of the water and looked for her mother. Lastly, adequate hand-washing is crucial. You can never wash your hands enough. When family members come to our unit, we ask them to do 2 minutes of hand scrubbing. I know that this is a lot of information to digest, but these are common sense precautions that really do have lifesaving benefits.
Welcome new staff to the Office!
This has been a busy summer for the Office. We have brought several new folks to our staff, and we are very excited to introduce them to you! Welcome to our team! Jennifer Chen is our Office Intern until June 2008. She is a student at Kennesaw State University working on an English degree. She hopes to attend law school and eventually become a child advocacy lawyer. During her time in our office, Jennifer looks forward to immersing herself in the policies, prevention plans, and investigation opportunities of saving children. Wende Parker joins OCFR as the new program manager for eastern Georgia. Wende joins us as a public health professional from the Cobb & Douglas public health district. She was most recently the Cobb/Douglas Injury Prevention Director. She was instrumental in injury prevention programming specific to motor vehicle crashes, home safety, and "train-the-trainer" initiatives incorporating daycare providers, DFCS staff, and public safety personnel. As a former CFR member for Cobb County, Wende is excited to join the state agency to help others work as a team. She can be reached by email at wrparker@dhr.state.ga.us or by phone at 770-528-3998. We would also like to welcome Karen back to the office as Administrative Assistant. She was a critical part of our office in the formative years until 2004, and now re-joins our staff after working as the Special Assistant for the Division Directors for both DFCS and Public Health. Kimberly Riggins will be our new Executive Secretary. She has experience managing administrative office needs for optimal efficiency. While she has experienced corporate downsizing events in the past, she feels a sense of purpose through government service, most recently working for a mental health outpatient clinic with Cobb-Douglas CSB.
Child Abuse Protocol Committee trainings...
In August 2007, the Office of Child Fatality Review partnered with the Georgia Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (GADEC) to develop a short series of regional Child Abuse Protocol (CAP) workshops. These workshops were offered in the cities of Valdosta, Helen, Statesboro, and Carrollton. Each workshop was designed to offer participants an overview of the current state model protocol, solicit suggestions and advice for updating the state model to reflect new legislation and best practices, and guidelines for managing children found at clandestine methamphetamine labs or other drug sites. Some suggestions for improving the local response to child abuse were: to include EMS as a mandated member of the protocol team, to secure specialized prosecutors in each jurisdiction for child abuse cases, to encourage DEC treatment plans that support extended families raising children/ grandchildren, and to offer more frequent trainings for both mandated reporters and the general public. Future CAP workshops will be offered beginning in January 2008. You will receive an email and/or fax notification of the training dates and locations. Please be sure to share the registration information with all other members of your Protocol team. Trainings for Child Fatality Review will be offered separately starting in April.
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CFR Panel Profile Page

Mary Dean Harvey, State DFCS Director

Mary Dean Harvey was born and raised in Louisiana, but spent most of her career in Nebraska. She was a teacher and administrator in Omaha public schools for seventeen years. As the Executive Director of Girls Incorporated of Omaha from 1986 to 1991, she raised both the prospects and self-expectations of low-income girls by creating that city's first mentoring program for young women. In 1991, she was appointed director of the Nebraska Department of Social Services where she pioneered welfare reform in the state. From 1995 to 2002, she served as president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha where she helped deliver better services to more children, increasing their academic performance and helping them learn leadership skills. Following that position, she was manager of the Omaha Public School system's "Safe Schools Healthy Students" initiative, she has brought together a network of providers to give disadvantaged children and their families access to the afterschool program, healthcare, mental health, family development, and early childhood development services they need to have the best chance of succeeding at school and in life. Ms. Harvey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Grambling University and a Masters in Science in Secondary Education and Certification in Educational Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Mary Dean Harvey became the state DFCS Director in August 2005. As an ex-officio member, she has played a vital role to the CFR Panel since that date, providing agency support and services to OCFR staff and local committees in many ways.

2007 CFR Online Reporting Form
OCFR staff want to thank those of you who have diligently and responsibly reviewed the child deaths in your county, and submitted the CFR reports online. Unfortunately, there have been some reported problems with the online reporting form, generally due to its large size. This is a large file, and will take some time to fully load onto your computer. However, if you are experiencing severe delays in downloading the 2007 CFR report, please contact your agency IT department for technical support. They should be able to assist you in adjusting your firewall protections or increasing your storage space to download the form.

County Prevention Efforts in 2007

Other states are constantly working to ensure their Child Fatality Review program and prevention efforts are well-known throughout their communities. In Travis County, Texas, the CFR team an-
nounces the findings of the previous year's annual report in a press conference during the month of April, which is Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. The press announcement names the agencies involved, the number of meetings held, and the goals of the partnership (to share resources, educate the community, and prevent future deaths). If you would like assistance in holding a press conference or joining a statewide CFR media campaign, please contact the Office at 770-528-3988. We are currently recruiting for interns to assist in a wide variety of media programming relating to child injury prevention at the state and local levels.

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm has declared September "Infant Safe Sleep Month" in Michigan to raise awareness of the increasing number of infant deaths related to unsafe sleep environments. An interagency group, including the state departments of Human Services, Community Health, and Education, the Michigan Public Health Institute, Tomorrow's Child/Michigan SIDS, and other private sector partners, are collaborating to provide resources and Infant Safe Sleep education materials for families, communities, and providers. The National Center for Cultural Competence, at Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development recently published a document titled Building Integrated Systems to Address Sudden and Unexpected Infant Death which describes the Michigan program and how the strength of collaborative efforts can create sustainable, well-funded, evidence-based and culturally competent approaches to addressing SUID.

Do you have a great program or idea that you want to share? Do you know someone who is doing something that helps children to avoid injury and stay safe? Let us know and share your story with others! We look forward to hearing from you!

Together Everyone Achieves More

Please submit your stories of success or other ideas by December 14, 2007 to: The Office of Child Fatality Review 506 Roswell Street, Suite 230 Marietta, Georgia 30060
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Upcoming Events

October 3-5, 2007: National Crime Prevention Council pre- December 12-14, 2007: CDC Maternal and Child

sents the 8th National Conference on Preventing Crime:

Health Epidemiology Conference (Crowne-Plaza Hotel

Helping Build Safer Communities (Hilton Atlanta). Visit Atlanta). Please visit www.cdc.gov for more information.

www.ncpc.org for more information.

Ongoing: Child Passenger Safety Technician classes

sponsored by the Georgia Traffic Injury Prevention Insti-

November 3-7, 2007: American Public Health Association tute. Classes held in Conyers (October and December),

Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Visit www.apha.org Dalton (October) and Savannah (November). Visit

for registration information.

www.ridesafegeorgia.com for registration.

CFR Deadlines and Timelines
A great number of teams have put fantastic effort into providing the 2006 child fatality review reports by the July 31 deadline and we thank you for this, as it allows each county to be in compliance and it helps the annual report process run smoothly as well. Despite the "number crunching" and "data-cleaning", please remember that the big picture of CFR work is not just about the reporting form or the numbers. The numbers are critical for all of us to ponder, yet they also force us to reconnect as a team and direct our energy toward prevention efforts. Please take the time at your future CFR meetings to always ask these two questions: 1) What are we doing to decrease deaths in our community? 2) Who is assigned to follow up with recommendations?

Please help us to stay in contact with you! If you are no longer participating in the CFR Committee, or have moved to a new office, or if your address or phone number has changed, PLEASE let us know! It only takes a few minutes of your time and benefits all of us. This will help us to alert you to future trainings, posted funding opportunities for prevention activities, as well as provide an updated directory in the new policy manual. You may be contacted by our office soon as we work to update our contact list; please take the time to inform us about those still active in your CFR committee.

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Office of Child Fatality Review 506 Roswell Street, Suite 230 Marietta Georgia, 30060 Phone: 770.528.3988 Fax: 770.528.3989 Website: www.gacfr.dhr.georgia.gov

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In an effort to facilitate information sharing, we have developed this newsletter to bring us closer. Knowing that our goal is the protection of children and the prevention of child deaths, we want to include your experiences and ideas to improve the quality of services we provide. Please contact us with any suggestions on how to make the
Office of Child Fatality Review process helpful to you.
Go Team!