Onslow County child fatality review team reports five child fatalities linked to varied causes and highlights prevention efforts

Tondria Leech, Social Work Program Manager with the Onslow County Department of Social Services, presented the annual report of the Community Child Protection Team and Child Fatality Prevention Team on April 7, describing the teams’ case reviews, findings and prevention work.

Leech told the board the teams review medical examiner reports, police reports, child welfare files and other community reports to identify service gaps and recommend prevention measures. She said North Carolina General Statute §7B-1406 requires review of all child fatalities regardless of prior involvement with social services.

For cases reviewed that stemmed from calendar-year 2023, the team found five fatalities in which the child had been involved with the Department of Social Services; the team also reviewed an additional 45 cases not otherwise involved with DSS, Leech said. In the five child-welfare-related fatalities, Leech reported there was one teen death, two infant deaths and two homicides. Across the wider set of reviewed cases, she listed common factors including unsafe sleep practices, prenatal or medical complications, traffic accidents, suicide, drowning and deaths associated with overheating in vehicles. Leech also cited parental and youth opioid use as an ongoing challenge.

Leech said Child Protective Services social workers assessed 1,777 reports of child abuse, neglect and dependency in Onslow County during 2024 (cases reported in 2024 were the subject of many of the review discussions). She identified two recurring barriers to protecting children: timely access to medical and mental-health services and difficulties obtaining medical records from military health providers.

The team described prevention and community efforts already underway: distribution of pack-and-play cribs and car seats through community partners, safe-sleep education (including a focus on hazardous locations such as recliners), car-seat installation trainings, tracking of mental-health referrals and follow-up, and a plan-of-care process when infants are born substance-affected. Leech noted that the county’s Consolidated Human Services building displays blue pinwheels in April to mark Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Leech closed by saying the teams attend state trainings, participate in community outreach events, and work with law enforcement on child-death reenactments as part of broader prevention efforts. She invited questions; none were asked on the record.

Ending: The report documented causes and community responses, and identified access to timely medical/mental-health care and military medical-record access as persistent barriers the teams will continue to address.