Download 1999 Annual Report (pdf) (2.2 M)

Accomplishments in Preventing Child Death in Oregon
The number of children dying in Oregon from child abuse, injuries, suicide and SIDS continued to decline in 1999. While the statewide Child Fatality Review process cannot take full credit for this decline, the accom-plishments and collaborative efforts of all organizations participating in the child fatality review process in Oregon, among others, have impacted the decline. A key effort in 1999 was preparing data and other supportive information towards the passage of several legislative bills to help protect children: the Graduated Driver's Licensing bill for teen drivers, a bill to remove the religious exemption protection for parents who do not seek medical care for their children, and a bill to mandate referral to authorities of any child found with a firearm on school property.

Many CFR members provided testimony and supported this work. On the local level, many teams participated in activities to prevent child death and worked on the prevention recommendations listed below (see pages 34-35 for a more detailed list of some of the local team prevention activities). We applaud the good work of many individuals, agencies and organizations dedicated to the health and welfare of children, however, there is a great deal of work still to be done. We encourage Oregonians to embrace the following prevention recommendations.

Recommendations to Prevent Child Fatalities
A hallmark of the review team's efforts has been to reduce rationalization for deaths that would otherwise be viewed as an accident, and define the deaths as "preventable." This process provides communities with the opportunity to develop prevention strategies. A review of the details of 185 unexpected child deaths has identified the following avenues for prevention.

Recommendations to Prevent Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths

• Increase correct restraint use, particularly among teens.
• Improve enforcement of speed and seat belt laws.
• Decrease drinking and driving.
• Enforce and fully implement the Graduated Driver's Licensing law.
• Increase the use of child safety seats among children aged 0-4..8
• Recommendations to Prevent Suffocation Deaths
• Educate parents about how alcohol and drug abuse create a risk of rolling over on their children when sleeping with them.
• Conduct a thorough death scene investigation and autopsy on all unexplained infant deaths to assist in differentiating between natural, accidental and intentional deaths.

Recommendations to Prevent Drowning Deaths

• Educate parents and teens on the deadly nature of Oregon's cold and heavy river currents.
• Encourage the use of personal flotation devices (PFDs) for non-boating uses in rivers and lakes.
• Supervise children in and near water.
• Teach children to swim.

Recommendations to Prevent Firearm Related Deaths

• Educate the public about safe firearm storage practice including: keeping firearms in locked storage
• compartments, storing ammunition separately, and using trigger locks.
• Remove or lock up guns in homes where a youth at risk for suicide lives.
• Enact safe storage legislation.

Recommendations to Prevent Fire Fatalities

• Increase public awareness of new legislation requiring smoke alarms to have a "silencing" feature to reduce disabling due to nuisance alarms and an extended life battery to reduce the incidence of dead batteries.
• Continue the promotion of changing batteries in traditional smoke alarms twice a year.
• Encourage families to replace existing battery-operated smoke alarms with alarms with 10-year batteries.
• Engage the State Office of Services to Children and Families (SCF) and Adult and Family Services (AFS) in efforts to educate their client families about maintaining working smoke alarms, and replacing smoke alarm batteries during home visits.

Recommendations Related to Unexplained Infant Death

• Promote putting infants to sleep on their backs.
• Encourage pregnant parents and family members who smoke to quit smoking.
• Complete death scene investigations and autopsies on all deaths from unexplained causes.
• Encourage sharing of information about families among different investigative agencies (i.e., law
• enforcement, SCF, medical examiner), as occurs during the Child Fatality Review, to promote thorough
• investigations of these deaths.

Recommendations to Prevent Suicide/Intentional Self Harm Deaths

• Implement Oregon's Youth Suicide Prevention Plan
• Focus suicide prevention efforts on youth with known risk factors..9
• Identify youth at risk for suicide by screening for risk factors such as depression.
• Screen all youth entering juvenile justice custody for depression and suicide risk and screen at regular intervals during custody.
• Encourage health care providers to assess firearm access in the homes of suicidal youth.
• Remove or lock up guns in homes where youth at risk for suicide live.
• Conduct more thorough investigations of suicides by including information from sources beyond
• immediate family members at the death scene.
• Educate authorities that suicide affects more than just the youth who dies. A potential for suicide clusters exists. In response to a suicide in a school or other institution, implement a crisis response plan that includes debriefing, screening, referral, counseling, and support for other youth and parents.

Recommendations to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths

• Increase supervision of children to prevent deaths due to neglect.
• Increase monitoring of protective services cases where drug and alcohol abuse is suspected, where domestic violence is suspected and where there is a history of involvement with law enforcement.
• Improve case coordination across county and state jurisdictions.

Recommendations to Prevent Deaths Among Disabled Children

• Providers should screen for disability in children to ensure appropriate services are provided.
• Share expertise between child protection and disability professionals.
• Train professionals in law enforcement, judicial system, human services, education and health care to recognize children with disabilities and to address care issues through prevention, intervention, and treatment.

Recommendations to Prevent Deaths Among Families with Drug and Alcohol Abuse

• Share expertise and case coordination among child protection and drug and alcohol professionals.
• Providers should increase screening for drug and alcohol problems among family and extended family members.
• Educate SCF, AFS, Law Enforcement, Mental Health and other workers about the pharmacology of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

Recommendations to Prevent Deaths Among Families with a History of Domestic Violence

• Community providers should work to identify and intervene in domestic violence.
• Improve information sharing to assist community providers in prevention of domestic violence.
• Increase community resources to prevent and intervene in domestic violence.