Conference Abstract Compendium Examples from the ... - CityMatCH

2009 CityMatCH Urban MCH Leadership ConferenceMaximizing urban MCH potential to prevent infant and child deaths through effectivechild death review teams, improved data collection and actionPRIMARY CONTACT:Theresa Covington, MPHExecutive DirectorNational Center for Child Death Review1115 Massachusetts Avenue, NWWashington, DC, 20005Phone: (517) 927-1527Fax: (517) 324-7365Email: tcovingt@mphi.orgWebsite: www.childdeathreview.orgCATEGORYInfant mortality and morbidityOther: Child and adolescent mortalityFOCUSProgram Policy FocusISSUEChild Death Review (CDR) is a multidisciplinary team process that brings together community agenciesto systematically discuss the factors that play a role in a child’s death; in order to understand how andwhy children die in order to take action to prevent other deaths. When effective, CDR leads toimprovements in child health and safety. At least 37 states have local child death review teams, includingin all of their major cities. Urban teams have unique challenges in conducting effective reviews. TheNational Center for Child Death Review promotes supports and enhances child death review methodologyand activities at local, state and national levels. The Center has worked with a number of urban regions toimprove the effectiveness of their reviews. This presentation will describe these efforts and offer concretesuggestions for enhancing urban CDR effectiveness. It will also present data from the National CDR CaseReporting System to illustrate the potential for using CDR findings for improvements in infant and childhealth.SETTINGCDR teams are a comprised of professionals from the child health, safety and protection fields. Thisworkshop will describe the challenges faced by a number of urban CDR teams throughout the U.S. andengage participants in describing their own challenges as CDR team members. The findings of theseteams across the country have wide-ranging implications for MCH systems and the potential to influencehealth and human service agency policies and practices.26