MARSHALL – In a small, tight-knit community like Madison County, the loss of each and every community member is felt throughout the whole county, but particularly when the loss of life involves a child.
Madison County Health Director Tammy Cody serves as chair of the Community Child Protection Team and Child Fatality Prevention Team and appeared before the Madison County Board of Commissioners Nov. 14 to give the board’s annual report.
The Community Child Protection Team and Child Fatality Prevention Team meet to review selected active cases in which children are being served by child protective services. The board also reviews cases in which a child has died as a result of suspected abuse or neglect. The board then submits an annual report to the Board of County Commissioners with recommendations, if any, and advocates for system improvements and needed resources where gaps and deficiencies may exist.
According to Cody, the Child Fatality Prevention Team seeks to identify and reduce preventable child fatalities through systemic, multidisciplinary and multi-agency reviews of child fatalities.
“The purpose of the review is to identify system problems, make recommendations for prevention of future fatalities and act on those recommendations,” Cody said.
“This is the first time I’ve presented to you with only one death for the entire year,” Cody said. “It’s sad that we had the one death, but it’s wonderful that I’m not here to go over many deaths tonight. This child was born with very significant physical disabilities, and the child lived longer than what was expected due to lots of hard work and dedication from the child’s family, based on many specialists — not just in this area but in Charlotte at the children’s hospital.”
According to Cody, the Child Fatality Prevention Team was not able to find any system opportunities for improvement.
“There was nothing we could do. It was just an unpreventable issue with that particular death,” Cody said.
According to Cody, the team participated in child abuse prevention programs in April, as well as the National Institutes of Health’s Safe to Sleep campaign in response to a child’s potential sleep-related death in 2022.
Additionally, through grant funding, the county procured a number of Pack ‘n Plays for children to sleep safely.
“Sometimes I think we take for granted, I think, that all families have cribs, and that’s not the case,” Cody said. “So for families that don’t have cribs, we’ve tried to provide Pack ‘n Plays, and if that’s not possible, work with them on other alternatives that are not putting a small infant in the bed with them.”
The county health director said the health department has issued all of the Pack ‘n Plays in supply, but added that the Madison County Health Department is welcoming donations to be distributed to families in need.