Child Safety Task Force plans fair presence
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
County Public Health Nurse Tabitha Frank, standing at right, and County Health Center Administrator Della Rhoades Watkins, seated facing camera, presided over this week’s meeting of the newly formed Child Safety Task Force. The group, which has been gathering every couple of weeks, is making plans to launch an awareness campaign this summer starting with a “safety alley” at the Nodaway County Fair.
A newly formed Child Safety Task Force met this week at the Nodaway County Health Center and set its sights on making a big impact during the Nodaway County Fair in July.
County Health Center Administrator Della Rhoades Watkins, who chairs the group, said the task force hopes to set up a “safety alley” at the fair that would include a variety of training areas devoted to gun safety, water safety, car seats, safe infant sleeping, poison storage, shaken baby syndrome, safe babysitting and other topics.
Current plans call for awarding prizes — everything from midway ride tickets to a new television set — for parents who undergo training, and the more training undertaken, the bigger the prize.
Rhoades Watkins said the safety alley may also include displays and giveaways along with fire trucks, ambulances and other first-responder vehicles. She added that the task force is currently working to secure funding for free home-safety kits that include easily installed devices such as television tip-over straps, electrical socket covers, drawer catches and bathtub spout covers.
Interest in the task force grew following the accidental shooting death in January of a 9-month-old infant in Elmo. However, Rhoades Watkins said plans for the panel had been under way for several months before the tragedy occurred.
She said that in addition to the Elmo fatality, there have been three other preventable deaths of children under 1 year old in Nodaway County over the past 12 months. Two of the deaths were sleep related, and a third is being investigated as a possible shaken baby episode.
At an organizational meeting on Feb. 17, the group decided to focus its energies on families with children ranging in age from infancy to 5 years. Priority issues for the task force include poison control and prevention, including e-cigarettes; gun safety; accidental drowning; vehicle safety and car seats; shaken baby syndrome; animal attacks; and safe sleep.
In order to create awareness and educate families about these and other issues, the panel is investigating avenues for grant funding. It also wants to create a continuing presence at school activities, town festivals and other special events.
Rhoades Watkins said task force membership is open anyone with an interest in child safety issues and not limited to law enforcement, healthcare or social services professionals. However, those areas are represented. Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice is involved in the initiative as is Rita Miller, the public affairs officer for St. Francis Hospital, and Christy Forney of Maryville Public Safety.
Now that the group has held a few meetings and decided on its first major project, Rhoades Watkins said the next steps will likely involve the creation of committees to deal with fundraising, prizes, promotion and programming. She added that school nurses from several Nodaway County school districts are on board and have agreed to get out the word about the task force and its activities.
Though the County Health Center is playing a leadership role in setting up the task force, Rhoades Watkins said her vision is that the initiative will gradually be taken over by volunteers. She said a similar plan was successfully applied to the Nodaway County Crusade Against Cancer, which the center helped found in 1999, but which now operates with minimal support from County Health.
Rhoades Watkins said a number of studies indicate the time is ripe to turn child safety into a public health priority, and she cited statistics compiled by the Safe Kids advocacy group indicating that 2,200 children die each year in the United States due to preventable injuries suffered in the home. Safe Kids also claims that 3.5 million youngsters annually end up in emergency rooms due to such injuries.
Not only that, but Rhoades Watkins said there appears to be something of a disconnect between parents’ perceptions about child safety and what is really happening.
For example, she said, in a Safe Kids survey of more than 1,000 families, drowning didn’t even tip the scale of perceived hazards confronted by children 12 and under. Yet drowning is the leading cause of injury-related death in the home for youngsters age 1 through 4.
The survey also indicated that nearly half of the parents queried had not secured televisions and furniture to keep them from tipping over, yet such incidents result in thousands of trips to the ER every year.
In addition, the survey showed that one in eight parents have left their young child alone in a bathtub for at least five minutes, and three in 10 keep medicines and cleaning products on a low shelf or unlocked cabinet.
Fourteen percent of parents surveyed admitted to never checking smoke alarm batteries.
“It makes you ask if maybe we need to start at ground zero with regard to basic parenting skills,” said Rhoades Watkins, speculating that too many new parents just don’t know enough about the essentials of feeding, clothing, bathing and sheltering newborns and young children.
“It used to be that maybe your mother or grandmother would come and stay after the baby came and show families how to do these things,” she said. “But it’s a different culture. Now you’re in the hospital 48 hours, and then it’s ‘Here’s your baby.’”
The task force next meets at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at the Nodaway County Health Center, located at 2416 S. Main St. in Maryville. For more information, call the center at 660.562.2755.
