Friday, August 29, 2014

Tips from Existing CFR Teams

During the Local CFR Coordinator training in June 2014, representatives from existing CFR teams hosted a panel to answer questions from new coordinators. Kristy Emerson (from Mesa County), Chloe Leipzig (from Larimer/Jackson Counties), Trish McClain (from Northeast Colorado), Jacque Frenier (from Morgan County), Jodi Byrnes (from Denver County), and Margaret Huffman and Sabra Anckner (both from Jefferson County) participated in the panel and were very helpful to the new coordinators!

When the existing teams were asked about one piece of advice for new local CFR teams, here's what they had to say:

  • Build a strong relationship with the coroner.
  • It's not about blame.
  • Provide food.
  • Have mutual respect among the team members.
  • Acknowledge team members for the tough work they do.
  • It's okay to disagree, but be respectful.
  • Remember that there is a lot of time to review the cases so don't stress about the data collection.
  • Keep the focus on prevention. That is the purpose of child fatality review.
  • Use the state support team. 

If you are interested in reaching out to existing local coordinators with any questions, contact the CFPS support staff and we can connect you with them!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Open Competitive Opportunity for an Essentials for Childhood Program Coordinator

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Injury, Suicide and Violence Prevention Branch (the same Branch where CFPS is housed) is hiring an Essentials for Childhood Program Coordinator.

The purpose of this position is to provide coordination and project management of child maltreatment prevention activities under the Implementation of Essentials for Childhood: Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments Grant. Activities include the coordination of collaborative statewide partnerships and strategic processes.


To apply: Essentials for Childhood Program Coordinator


The application will be open until August 29, 2014 or until an adequate applicant pool has been identified. 

Monday, August 11, 2014

Position Vacancies on the CFPS State Review Team

Are you interested in serving on the Child Fatality Prevention System State Review Team? Starting this September, there will be several position vacancies on the State Review Team. The team vacancies include:
  • Governor-appointed physician who specializes in traumatic injury or children's health (2 vacancies starting 9/1/14)
  • Governor-appointed nurse who specializes in traumatic injury or children's health (1 vacancy starting 9/1/14)
  • Governor-appointed rural district attorney (currently vacant)
  • Governor-appointed county commissioner (currently vacant)
  • Team-selected Court-appointed Special Advocate Program Director (currently vacant) 

For the governor-appointed positions, interested applicants will need to apply through the Governor's Office of Boards and Commissions using the following link: https://www.tfaforms.com/290254. For the team-selected vacancy, interested applicants can send their resume to colleen.kapsimalis@state.co.us.

To learn more about the CFPS State Review Team, please read the description below.

CFPS State Review Team Purpose and Duties

The purpose of the Child Fatality Prevention System (CFPS) is to conduct multi-disciplinary and comprehensive reviews of preventable child fatalities that occur in Colorado in order to better understand how and why children die and to develop prevention recommendations to prevent future deaths. Currently, the CFPS State Review Team conducts case-specific reviews on about 220 preventable child fatalities per year including undetermined causes, unintentional injury (e.g., drowning, falls, fires, poisoning), violence (e.g., homicide, any firearm death), motor vehicle incidents, child abuse or neglect, sudden unexpected infant death (e.g., sleep-related deaths), and suicide. The information from the reviews is entered into a web-based data collection tool so that the data can be analyzed and aggregated to identify risk factors and prevention opportunities. On an annual basis, the CFPS State Review Team reviews the aggregated data to prioritize state-level policy recommendations to submit to the governor and the Colorado General Assembly. To read the 2014 annual report, please click this link: http://www.cochildfatalityprevention.com/2014/07/colorado-child-fatality-prevention.html. 

Although the CFPS State Review Team will continue to review individual cases for the next year, after the 2013 data year ends, local child fatality review teams will conduct the individual reviews. The State Review Team will continue to make state-level, policy-related recommendations for the state legislature based on the prevention recommendations made by the local teams.

Time Commitment

There are five subcommittees that review cases (accident/injury, motor vehicle, sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID)/sleep-related deaths, child abuse/neglect, and violence). The subcommittees usually meet every other month to review cases (except SUID which meets monthly) for two-hour meetings. Most CFPS State Review Team members sit on at least one subcommittee. 

In addition to the subcommittee meetings, the full CFPS State Review Team meets on a quarterly basis for a two-hour meeting.

All meetings are in Denver, CO, but we always have a call-in option for members that are not in the Denver metro area.  

How to Apply

Please fill out an online application from the Governor's Office of Boards and Commissions. The application can be accessed using the following link:https://www.tfaforms.com/290254. When applying for a position, please select "Child Fatality Prevention Review Team, Colorado State" under the question that asks, "Which Boards and Commissions are you interested in?" 

Thursday, August 7, 2014

SAVE THE DATE: Sexual Violence Prevention Webinar



When: 08/13/2014
Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Join the meeting on August 13, 2014
Conference Number(s): 712-432-0220
Participant Code: 2589#

Poet Allen Ginsberg proclaimed, “Whoever controls the media – the image – controls the culture.” This workshop will utilize multimedia, interactive discussion, and storytelling to empower participants with tools to enhance their media literacy skills and gain insight into the positive and negative ways media represents masculinities.

This is the first of on an ongoing series of Sexual Violence Prevention hosted Technical Assistance Webinars. The goal of the webinars is to provide technical assistance, enhance networking and collaboration among SVP grantees and other community stakeholders and to showcase successful strategies by SVP grantees and collaborative partners within the primary prevention arena.

Sleep Environment Risks for Younger and Older Infants

Jeffrey D. Colvin, Vicki Collie-Akers, Christy Schunn, and Rachel Y. Moon

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Sudden infant death syndrome and other sleep-related causes of infant mortality have several known risk factors. Less is known about the association of those risk factors at different times during infancy. Our objective was to determine any associations between risk factors for sleep-related deaths at different ages.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study of sleep-related infant deaths from 24 states during 2004–2012 contained in the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths Case Reporting System, a database of death reports from state child death review teams. The main exposure was age, divided into younger (0–3 months) and older (4 months to 364 days) infants. The primary outcomes were bed-sharing, objects in the sleep environment, location (eg, adult bed), and position (eg, prone).
RESULTS: A total of 8207 deaths were analyzed. Younger victims were more likely bed-sharing (73.8% vs 58.9%, P < .001) and sleeping in an adult bed/on a person (51.6% vs 43.8%, P < .001). A higher percentage of older victims had an object in the sleep environment (39.4% vs 33.5%, P < .001) and changed position from side/back to prone (18.4% vs 13.8%, P < .001). Multivariable regression confirmed these associations.
CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors for sleep-related infant deaths may be different for different age groups. The predominant risk factor for younger infants is bed-sharing, whereas rolling into objects in the sleep area is the predominant risk factor for older infants. Parents should be warned about the dangers of these specific risk factors appropriate to their infant’s age.