Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin’s (the Alliance) injury prevention and death review initiative brought together dedicated professionals statewide for critical training opportunities that are making a real difference in protecting Wisconsin’s children.

Regional meetings
Our injury prevention and death review team recently hosted successful regional meetings in Chippewa, Forest, Jefferson and Marathon counties. These meetings brought together team coordinators and data users from surrounding counties to strengthen our collaborative efforts and share valuable insights.

The Alliance staff presented information covering key topics including:

  • Strategies for managing difficult conversations.
  • Tips and tricks for effectively using the case reporting system.
  • Methods for translating data into actionable prevention strategies.
  • Sudden unexpected infant death categorization best practices.

Attendees participated in hands-on learning through mock case reviews and ended each meeting with a gratitude activity designed to promote resilience – an important element given the challenging nature of fatality review work.

Survey results truly showed the impact of these meetings with participants sharing feedback such as:

  • “I always enjoy hearing about the work other CDR/FIMR teams are doing.”
  • “…the topics discussed were so spot on and helpful!”

Death scene investigation and doll reenactment training
In May, the Alliance partnered with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Walworth County Medical Examiner’s Office (WCMEO) to address critical needs in comprehensive death scene investigations (DSI).

Two specialized trainings were conducted at the Lake View Conference Center in Wausau, Wis. with nearly 100 attendees representing 66 agencies from both rural and urban areas across Wisconsin.

Participants included medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officers, child protective service workers, emergency medical services professionals, Consumer Product and Safety Commission representatives and public health professionals.

The training was conducted by Ken Folkers, special agent with the Division of Criminal Investigation at DOJ and Gina Carver, D-AMBDI medical examiner with Walworth County. The two shared the components of a complete, thorough investigation of an infant or child death scene, including a doll reenactment. They stressed the importance of collecting evidence and information as it supports the efforts of local CDR teams and their data collection and prevention efforts.

Looking ahead
The Alliance hopes to host additional DSI trainings in the future, continuing to build our statewide capacity for thorough, compassionate and effective child death investigations.

These collaborative efforts strengthen our entire network, helping us better protect Wisconsin’s children and support families during their most difficult times. We thank all our partners for their dedication to this vital work!