Re: child deaths

[MichaelD55@xxxxxxx (by way of Andres <NDACAN@xxxxxxxxxxx>)]

Send me an address and I will send you some materials. The question is not 
why but why not. Why not talk to each other after a child has been killed? 
Why not have a multiagency peer intervention peer review? Why not have an 
inclusive intake of cases (e.g., all child deaths) rather than just CPS 
Cases? Why not have all professionals measure their failure? You very amateur 
high school athletes are measured after their games.

Several Australian states have such teams. New South Wales has published 
several reports. You local decision to address child fatality is political 
and cultural not scientific.

You will not be able to prevent child deaths with any accuracy sitting in the 
isolated world of one profession. You will be closer with multiple agencies. 
Some of your fatal abuse/neglect cases will have previous CPS contact. Almost 
all will have health records if only to have been born in a hospital. Some of 
the families will have records in the criminal justice system. Killing a 
child is not just another social problem to be solved with social 
intervention alone. It is a crime. 

We now have teams in all but one state in the US. Most of Canada has such 
teams. Honors suggests excellence. Pursue it wherever it takes you. There was 
"no child abuse" in 1960 when I finished high school, almost "no sexual 
abuse" in 1975 when I finished my formal training in child psychiatry in 1980 
and almost "no fatal child abuse" most places in 1990. You will see more 
changes. Seek data but don't miss the obvious.

Michael Durfee 
ICAN National Center on Child Fatality Review
Los Angeles

Do a web search for Child Fatality Review. There are fine pages for Arizona, 
Texas, British Columbia and others. Look at our page ican-ncfr.org and read 
the California data. Look for your own multiple data systems on suspicious 
child death. Find PubMed and do a search.