Summit to focus on child safety in Lynchburg May 12th

By Cynthia Pegram
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: April 30, 2008

In Virginia, more children and adolescents die from accidents or injury than from any other cause.

A Childhood Safety Summit on May 12, sponsored by the Central Virginia Health District, will look at why those deaths happen and what the community can do.

“We want to provide education and training to help prevent some of the needless deaths,” said Haley Phillips, R.N., nursing supervisor for the Central Virginia Health District.

The young people’s deaths are counted among the 687 from injury in Central Virginia from 2001 to 2005, said Phillips, who helped develop what is the district’s first Childhood Safety Summit.

Among the causes of death are motor vehicle crashes, suffocation, falls, fires, drownings and poisonings.

“Our statistics show there’s a community need for more education and awareness of these issues,” she said.

The Central Virginia Health District — which includes Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell — has a death rate of about 59.24 per 100,000 population, said Phillips, which puts it in about the middle of the state’s health districts. In contrast, Richmond city has a death rate of 99.26 per 100,000.

“We hope to empower parents with the knowledge to help their own children make better choices,” she said.

That means talking to pre-teens and teens as they’re learning to drive, she said. It means parents will learn things they must address before their teens are on the road unaccompanied.
Teen suicide is among the issues to be discussed.

“Anyone attending the summit will learn to identify signs that a child is contemplating suicide, and learn techniques to intervene,” she said.

More info:

- The Childhood Safety Summit will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. May 12 at Lynchburg General Hospital. It is open to the public without charge and includes lunch. The reservation deadline is Friday; call (434) 947-6818.
- Topics include: ‘Children and meth labs’ — Wade Collins, hazardous materials officer for the Virginia Department of Health; ‘Legal issues surrounding children’ — Sally Steel, Campbell County assistant commonwealth’s attorney; ‘Teen Driving’ — Virginia State Police trooper Mat Okuley; ‘Teen Suicide Prevention’ — Amy Hart, suicide prevention coordinator, Crisis Line of Central Virginia; ’Children and Internet Safety’ — Robert New, Campbell County Sheriff’s Office investigator.