Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Central Time

Registration Website: http://citymatch.org/ppor_net.php

Is child abuse and neglect (CAN) a big problem in your community? If so, would your PPOR investigations discover it? How can communities address this issue? The answers might not be as clear as you think.

When communities using PPOR find a large portion of their excess mortality in the Infant Health period of risk (post-neonatal, non-VLBW deaths), they investigate the reasons for the excess mortality using the Underlying Cause of Death code from the death certificate. While many of these deaths are coded as SIDS or R99, several communities have found high rates of unintentional (accidental) and intentional injuries, and there may be communities that don’t find them when they are actually there.

Our presenter this month, Dr. Steve Wirtz, has studied surveillance of CAN extensively in California using vital records, child death review, child welfare, and justice system data. In this presentation you will learn about under-reporting of child-maltreatment fatalities in the vital records system, and about how professional and community groups might improve identification and investigation of maltreatment deaths through other data sources and local child death review processes. In addition to investigating deaths, PPOR community groups may be able to use CAN data systems to gain insight into risk factors and prevention strategies for these deaths. Strategies that prevent deaths are also likely to prevent serious injuries and other CAN incidents.

Presenter:
Presented by Steve Wirtz, PhD
Safe and Active Communities Branch
California Department of Public Health*

Co-author:
Jaspreet Samra, MPH, California Epidemiological Investigation Service Fellow , California Department of Public Health*