Advocating for the Child Fatality Review Committee
from School Health Reporter, Winter 2003
With Colorado ’s budget shortfall and several newly elected legislators, The Children’s Hospital is facing some unique legislative challenges and opportunities. As always, many public policy decisions are expected to be made during this legislative session (which began Jan. 8) that will affect kids’ health and wellbeing. One issue The Children’s Hospital is examining closely is the future of the Child Fatality Review Committee (CFRC), which recently lost more than half of its funding due to budget cuts.
The CFRC is a multidisciplinary team of professionals representing public health, medicine, law and law enforcement, child welfare, forensics, mental health and other special interests related to the health and safety of children. The voluntary committee has been reviewing all child deaths in Colorado since 1989 with an eye toward identifying trends and patterns in child death in Colorado . The resulting data has proven invaluable to the medical community, law enforcement and social services, helping to identify risk factors for child death, characterizing high-risk groups and evaluating the services and systems that respond to high-risk children and families.
For example, the CFRC has released unprecedented data on child deaths in Colorado due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), accidental drownings, firearms and motor vehicle crashes. The committee also has released detailed reports about the causes of deaths each year among kids in Colorado from 1990 through 2000.
One component of the CFRC’s work is to examine each death for its potential as a child abuse case. By taking into account all of the evidence surrounding each death, the committee is able to identify and re-categorize many deaths as child abuse each year. We have a much truer picture of the extent of the problem of child abuse in Colorado – a problem which is frequently underestimated because of the way in which death certificates are coded – because of the work of this committee.
As advocates for children’s health and well-being, Children’s supports the CFRC as a highly effective way to clearly identify why and how children die in Colorado – with a myriad of benefits. Most important, groups that work on children’s health and safety can use the committee’s data to more effectively channel efforts and resources into preventing deaths and injuries. In addition, the committee’s work encourages greater accountability among professionals, promotes statewide child death investigation training, sets the stage for improved public policies and vastly improves the accuracy and availability of information about child death.
Almost all states in the nation have some form of child-fatality review taking place. In many states, a group like the CFRC is legislated; in other words, the government requires such a team to exist. In Colorado , there is no such requirement. With the support of our board-level Advocacy Committee, Children’s is considering introducing legislation during the 2003 session to establish by law the permanency of the CFRC.
If you are interested in tracking the progress of such legislation, please consider joining Children’s Grassroots Advocacy Network. You’ll be kept up-to-date regarding all of our legislative priorities, and will be alerted when you can help influence legislation. We make it simple and quick for you to make your voice heard and for you to help keep Colorado a healthy, safe place to be a kid. Join online now!
