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State report: 470 child deaths in 2016; child-death review program highlights prevention campaigns
Summary
The Arkansas infant and child death review program reported 470 child deaths in 2016 (ages 0–17), with 183 cases eligible for local-team review and 141 reviewed; staff highlighted suicide-prevention and Safe Sleep campaigns and urged intercommittee sharing of traffic-safety findings.
Dawn Porter, coordinator of the Arkansas Infant and Child Death Review Program, told the Senate Children and Youth Committee that the program reviewed deaths that occurred in 2016 as part of a fiscal-year reporting cycle and identified prevention priorities including motor-vehicle crashes, infant safe-sleep practices and suicide prevention.
"In 2016, there were 470 child deaths between the ages of 0 to 17," Porter said. Of those, 183 cases were eligible for local-team review and 141 of the eligible cases were reviewed. Porter told members that 39 percent of reviewed deaths were classified as accidents and that motor-vehicle crashes were the leading cause of accidental deaths. She also said 46 percent of preventable deaths were among children under age 1, while 24 percent were among youth ages 15 to 17.
Porter described two statewide campaigns: a suicide-prevention campaign that produced drug-take-back materials (posters, banners and yard signs) and distributed brochures and materials locally, and a Safe Sleep campaign that included an official proclamation designating Infant Safe Sleep Awareness Month and a 19-billboard statewide messaging effort. The review program distributed more than 7,000 copies of a suicide-means-restriction brochure in six months, Porter said.
Committee members asked why a 2016 report was presented in 2019; Porter explained the program reviews cases a year behind and recently shifted from calendar-year to fiscal-year reporting to avoid duplicative reviews and to produce more consistent annual data. Members discussed sharing teen-driving data with the Transportation Committee and requested localized campaign placement information; Porter said she can supply those details on request. She also described the makeup of local review teams — law enforcement (Crimes Against Children Division), Division of Children and Family Services, prosecuting attorneys, the medical examiner, public health, hospital staff and emergency management — and outlined the quarterly-review process.
Porter said the program is seeing a decline in infant deaths attributed to education and policy changes but a troubling increase in youth suicide among females and an increase in firearm-related suicide deaths; the program is coordinating with suicide-prevention organizations statewide.
