Alcoholic parents and child vehicle-related deaths.

["Oddone Virginio" <oddovir@xxxxxxxxx>]

The May 3, 2000 issue of JAMA has two papers on the issue of alcohol-related children deaths in car accidents:

 

 

Alcohol and Motor Vehicle–Related Deaths of Children as Passengers, Pedestrians, and Bicyclists
Lewis H. Margolis; Robert D. Foss; William G. Tolbert
JAMA. 2000;283:2245-2248
 
Characteristics of Child Passenger Deaths and Injuries Involving Drinking Drivers
Kyran P. Quinlan; Robert D. Brewer; David A. Sleet; Ann M. Dellinger
JAMA. 2000;283:2249-2252

 

I think that this issue should be kept well in mind by all persons interested in child-protection. More information may be found in the MMWR.

 

Virginio.

 

 

 

****************************

 

Virginio Oddone, MD
V. A. Avogadro 6
10121 - Torino (Italy)
e-mail: oddovir@xxxxxxxxx

>From ???@??? Mon May 08 08:51:13 2000
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From: "Oddone Virginio"
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
References: <200005042041.QAA09724@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: R: Alcoholic parents and child vehicle-related deaths.
Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 21:36:56 +0200
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Rick:

If you were in Italy, you couldn't stop people from keeping very
small kids in a very unsafe way in the cars. We are, unfortunately, very,
very backward in trafic safety matters. Neither you would be very lucky in
trying to locate a CPS (or a CAC), because we have none; child protection
institutions are organized here in a radically different way, with judicial
offices (first of all our "Tribunale per i Minorenni" - "Minors' Court" is a
literal translation; "Children's Court" might be a better one) firmly in
control of most of the whole matter. (Very little comparison with the USA or
with the UK is possibile, since our judges are tenured legal professionists,
usually holding their job for life, although they may shift from one place
and/or position to another; they are neither elected nor subject to "spoil
system", since they are trough a public "concorso" - competition? I don't
know the exact english word - and they are completely independent from the
legislative and the executive branches of the Republic; this applies to the
"prosecution" too, whose officers are all judges, chosen on the same basis
as above. In the Juvenile/Children section, lay magistrates - "honorary
judges" - with specializations in child-related matters are mandatorily
present; I have been one of them for many years). It is the Tribunale per i
Minorenni that coordinates the work of the different operative groups in
charge of the "children in danger" or at risk, in the Social Services and
the Infantile Neuropsychiatry Units of their area.

As for the other issue you raised - why should we deal with dangerous
driving of alcoholic parents - well, I think that it is part of the general,
primary prevention duties of CPS or of any other service with similar goals,
everywhere in the world. Primary prevention is intended not just as
intervention on the specific risks for a specific problem in a specific
individual (i.e., the risk of Giannino Rossi, 3 y. old son of alcoholic Mr.
Nino Rossi, of being drunken driven without properly attached seat belt, or
of being beaten together with his mamma); it consists also in the
diffusion - in the Rossi family, their relatives, their neighbourhood - of
the risks of drunken driving with children aboard, of the usefulness of seat
belts. After all the social and family dangerousness of alcoholics doesn't
lie in their drinking habits, as instead - and above all - in their typical
recklessness, in every instance of their life. It is this recklessness that
should be the primary goal of social intervention in the Rossi family.

Because - and here might lie a major difference between our two countries -
here in Italy the focus is on the "child-in-the-family". Family - as the
social locus in which all protection and all solidarity starts - is regarded
as a constitutional right of the child (art. 30 and 31 of the Italian
Constitution), a principle which has been reinforced by the Law 184/83 (or,
to be more precise, Legge 4 maggio 1983, n. 184), which is the basic law of
child protection, whose opening statement reads as follows: "The minor [i.e.
the child] has the right to be educated within his family". This means that
the family has a duty to adjust to its offspring needs, but also that all
the concerned public services (beginning with the National Health System and
the local Social Services) have a duty to help and, in case, to educate and
correct the adults around Giannino; not just his dad or his mom, but also
those relatives who belong to what we call "the enlarged family". The family
is there for the good of the child; which is why we must keep into account
the reckless and drunken driving of Mr. Nino Rossi. In a sense, we do not
have "Child Protection Services"; we have instead "Child-within-the-family
Protection Services".

Virginio.

****************************

Virginio Oddone, MD
V. A. Avogadro 6
10121 - Torino (Italy)
e-mail: oddovir@xxxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Barth
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers

Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 10:32 PM
Subject: Re: Alcoholic parents and child vehicle-related deaths.


> Oddone: Why do you think these have relevance for Child Protection? Do
child protection agencies in
> Italy have such a broad public health focus? If I was in Italy and saw
someone driving with a child
> not in a seat belt or whose parent was weaving down the road, would I call
CPS? I am very
> interested in the point at which child welfare services sees its
responsibility as limited and where
> public health or corrections begins. Any light that you, or anyone else,
can shed on this from your
> perspective would be appreciated.
>
> Rick
>
SNIP - SNIP

> Richard P. Barth, Ph.D.
> Frank A Daniels Professor
> Jordan Institute for Families
> School of Social Work
> 301 Pittsboro Rd
> University of North Carolina
> Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550
> (v) 919 962 6516
> (f) 962 1486
>