What is the leading cause of death for children? While it’s something no one wants to think about, it may surprise you to know that it’s not related to an illness or disease.
The answer: preventable injury. Accidental (or preventable) injuries include drowning, burns, motor vehicle and bicycle accidents, poisoning and sports-related incidents. Topping the list are falls.
Rosemarie Ennis, assistant vice president, community health and education for Northwell Health, and director of Safe Kids New York State, a grassroots coalition formed from Safe Kids Worldwide and run by Northwell Health, said, “I don’t believe in ‘accidents happen.’ They are preventable. And no child should be injured due to a preventable risk associated with childhood.”
Ms. Ennis and her team work with partners at the national, state and local levels, to raise awareness on these important topics, enhance education and impact legislation. Some efforts have included informing the public on children suffering heatstroke when left in cars and water safety efforts to help reduce the risk associated with drowning injuries and deaths. The Safe Kids New York coalition is determined to share knowledge and change behaviors.
“Education is prevention,” Ms. Ennis passionately shared. “But Safe Kids can’t take it on alone.” One major philanthropic supporter has been the local Kiwanis Club — the Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center Foundation — filled with members known as Kiwanians who share the same vision of educating the public to prevent risk. The Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Center Foundation was initiated in the early 1990s by the New York Kiwanians to establish statewide trauma units at three identified regional hospitals that offer advanced and specialized health care for children — North Shore University Hospital being one. Over the last 25 years, Kiwanis has donated more than $1 million toward funding critical initiatives at Northwell Health, including Safe Kids programs. Most recently, Kiwanis supported the Distracted Driving Program at Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
This past year, the Kiwanis Club assisted Safe Kids New York with launching the Safe Kids Olympics — an initiative aimed at educating children in New York about the top five risk areas pertinent to kids in New York state. In its first year, Safe Kids New York helped 6,000 kids successfully complete the Olympics program where they learned about fire prevention, water safety and protection from sports injuries, falls and more.
“Our supporters give us the ability to effect change and save families from the horror of dealing with a traumatic situation for their child that may have been avoidable,” said Ms. Ennis. “I think the club members are ordinary people who do extraordinary things. When we turn to them and say, ‘Please help us do this,’ they never say no. That, to me, is a Kiwanian.”
Together, Kiwanis and Safe Kids work to erase the need for any parent to say, “If I had only known.” While there has been a 53 percent drop in preventable injury and risk-taking from 1987 to 2012, the ultimate goal is to give all children the ability to say, “Hey look at me — I grew up safe and sound.”
“I don’t think people realize the incidents we see with children in our Emergency Departments. Our work is shown in all of the kids who don’t ever come to one of our hospitals,” said Ms. Ennis. “We are working to keep them out of there so that parents can spend time with their children at a playground and see them run and smile and be thankful they are okay.”
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