childrenssafetynetwork Sign Up Information

Playgrounds serve as a central hub for communities, yet playground-related injuries remain a concern among parents, educators and health care providers. More than 200,000 playground-related injuries are treated in the U.S. emergency departments annually among children 18 years and younger.¹ The leading causes of playground injuries are falls, impact/strike, cut/pinch/crush, entrapment/entanglement, and trip/slip. Playground-related injuries commonly treated in the emergency department are fractures, contusions/abrasions, and lacerations. Research also has raised concern of an increase in playground-related traumatic brain injuries and has shown that contemporary playgrounds can expose children to unsafe environmental conditions.² This webinar brings together three experts from various disciplines, Eric Kennedy of Bucknell University, Heather Olsen of the National Program for Playground Safety, and Jennifer Vanos of Arizona State University to discuss promising tools and actions for S.A.F.E. TM playgrounds. Rhonda Siegel, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, will moderate this webinar.

Recognizing that we are currently experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic and may not have all of the answers about how to safely reopen public playgrounds where they had been closed, CSN wants to hear from you about what is happening in your state/community regarding playgrounds. When you register for this webinar, please respond to the questions regarding your experience. 

1 Vollman, D., Witsaman, R., Comstock, R. D., & Smith, G. A. (2009). Epidemiology of playground equipment-related injuries to children in the United States, 1996-2005. Clinical Pediatrics, 48(1), 66-71.

Evidence-based programs are those that have been rigorously tested in controlled settings, proven effective, and translated into practical models that are widely available. Evidence-informed programs, or practice-based evidence, uses the best available information, research and practice knowledge to guide program design and implementation. Ideally, evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions should be responsive to cultural backgrounds, community values and individual preferences. How do you know if you are using an evidence-based/informed program? What are the advantages of using such a program? How can you make an existing practice, or something you have been doing into something that is evidence-based or evidence-informed? Join us on this webinar to hear from two experts who can help answer your questions about using evidence-based interventions.  

Lynda Krisowaty of AMCHP will provide a brief overview of implementation science/evidence-based decision making, introduce AMCHP’s Innovation Station and related resources such as the implementation toolkits and explain key considerations for adaptation and quality improvement activities. Sarah Bacon of CDC will discuss evidence-based interventions from the vantage of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).  Her presentation will include the best available evidence for prevention of ACEs, the evolving conversation around defining and measuring ACEs, and ACEs health consequences and their impact.  Ms. Bacon will also provide additional implementation supports and resources to help injury prevention practitioners ensure that science is translated into action. Bekah Thomas of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will moderate this webinar.

Although Black youth have historically not been considered at high risk for suicide and self-harm, current trends now challenge that. In 2019, The Congressional Black Caucus reported that “the suicide death rate among Black youth has been found to be increasing faster than any other racial/ethnic group. In youth ages 10 to 19 years, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and in 2017, over 3,000 youth died by suicide in this age group. Over the past decade, increases in the suicide death rate for Black youth have seen the rate rising from 2.55 per 100,000 in 2007 to 4.82 per 100,000 in 2017. Black youth under 13 years are twice as likely to die by suicide and when comparing by sex, Black males, 5 to 11 years, are more likely to die by suicide compared to their White peers.” Further, the YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey, developed by the CDC) indicated that “suicide attempts rose by 73% between 1991-2017 for Black adolescents (boy and girls), while injury by attempt rose by 122% for Black adolescent boys during that time period. This suggests Black males are engaging in more lethal means when attempting suicide.”[i]

This webinar will focus on the epidemiology of suicide and self-harm among Black youth, identify evidence-based and informed strategies for prevention, risk and protective factors, barriers to prevention and resources available to providers. Dr. Crystal Barksdale of the National Institute of Mental Health will discuss the most recent data on suicide and suicidal behaviors among Black youth. She will describe risk and protective factors for suicide and deleterious mental health outcomes. Dr. Rhonda Boyd of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine will present barriers to intervention engagement among Black youth and current evidence for suicide prevention, including screening and treatment. She will share information regarding organizations and websites that are important resources for practitioners. Amy Loudermilk of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center at Education Development Center will moderate the webinar. 

[i]   Ring the Alarm. The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America. | The Congressional Black Caucus (2019) https://watsoncoleman.house.gov/uploadedfiles/full_taskforce_report.pdf

A poison is any substance that is harmful if too much is eaten, inhaled, injected, or absorbed through the skin. Poisoning remains the top cause of injury death in the U.S., and while the main cause of unintentional poisoning death is opioid overdose, almost any substance can be poisonous if used the wrong way, in the wrong amount, or by the wrong person. Common substances about which people call Poison Control include cosmetics, vitamins, hand sanitizers, pesticides, opioids, electronic-cigarettes, prescription drugs and topical medications. In 2018, there were 631 deaths and 168,410 nonfatal emergency department visits among U.S. children ages birth to 18 due to poisoning^.[i]  In that same year the 55 U.S. poison control centers provided telephone guidance for nearly 2.1 million human poison exposures; children younger than 6 years were responsible for nearly half of those cases.^[ii] One injury-related outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a sharp increase in poisoning exposures among children to household cleaners and hand sanitizers. This may be a result of the simultaneous increase in the presence in homes of both children and these substances.

In this webinar, Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor of Georgetown University Hospital will share the most current data on poisonings among U.S. children, including COVID-19-related trends, describe risk and protective factors and discuss challenges to preventing poisonings. Krista Osterthaler of the National Capital Poison Center, will demonstrate the recently-developed webPOISONCONTROL, a free online tool and app that provides instant triage recommendations and follow up for acute, unintentional exposures, bringing the expertise of poison control to people where they want it – online. Bonnie Kozial, of the American Academy of Pediatrics and an active member of the CSN-A, will moderate the webinar.

[i] CDC''s WISQARS https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html

[ii] https://www.poison.org/poison-statistics-national

The Children’s Safety Network (CSN) strives to reduce injury and violence related fatalities, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits among infants, children, and adolescents, ages 0-19, through capacity building in injury and violence prevention with state and jurisdiction Title V agencies. CSN provides training and technical assistance and develops and disseminates resources to all Title V agencies. CSN, in partnership with HRSA MCHB, also coordinates the Children’s Safety Now Alliance (CSN-A), to bring together leaders and experts in injury and violence prevention, from across the nation, to support Title V agencies. In addition, intensive technical assistance in select child safety topics is offered to state and jurisdiction maternal and child health and injury and violence prevention leaders and practitioners through the Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC). Eighteen states/jurisdictions joined the CSLC to work together over 18 months to make state and national progress in bullying prevention, motor vehicle traffic safety, poisoning prevention, sudden unexpected infant death prevention, and suicide prevention. 

This webinar will highlight how states work together through the CSLC to achieve health results by building capacity to improve state injury and violence prevention systems. Webinar participants will be introduced to the CSN Framework for Quality Improvement and Innovation in Child Safety that is used in the CSLC. The three key components of the Framework are Leadership and Management, Child Safety Expertise, and Systems Improvement. Participants will leave the webinar with an understanding of how CSLC states are identifying and selecting evidence-based strategies and using data to drive decision making as they sustainably implement and widely spread child safety strategies. State examples, success stories, and lessons learned will be shared.