Page 1012 - Week 03 - Thursday, 23 March 2017
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: The Children and Young People Death Review Committee exists to help ministers and directorates that operate services relating to children and young people understand and learn from the deaths of children and young people who live in the ACT. Every death of a child or young person is, of course, a tragedy and where these can be prevented we must ensure we are doing everything we can to prevent them. Understanding how and why children and young people die better equips us to achieve this.
Madam Speaker, in this report the Children and Young People Death Review Committee has adopted a social determinants of health framework to review the deaths of children and young people between 2004 and 2013. This means that the committee has examined the broader causes and risk factors, not just the immediate cause of death. The committee has recognised that these sad events are generally not the result of individual choices and that their causes can only be addressed by systemic change.
The social determinants of health framework looks at the ways we live our lives, our health, our safety, our vulnerability, the way we interact with our environment, even our own individual characteristics. These are the indicators used to consider the deaths of children and young people and what these deaths might tell us.
The committee found that, over the 10 years between 2004 and 2013, the leading causes of death of our children and young people were consistent: namely, cancers and birth defects. It also found that there was a reduction over the period in the proportion of children and young people whose deaths were avoidable. This is obviously a positive outcome, but it does not mean we should rest on our laurels and assume the trend will simply continue.
In particular, although fewer deaths occurred over the period as a result of our built environments, transport accidents and drowning occurred most frequently. This tells us that we need to remain vigilant on road and water safety. Members will be aware that water safety was a particular focus over the past summer, following a number of tragic deaths by drowning. In relation to our broader social and economic indicators, there was little change over the 10-year period, with health, safety and vulnerability indicators remaining steady over time.
It is extremely disappointing, of course, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people were over-represented in the deaths examined, with a relative risk of dying almost three times higher than other children and young people.
The committee also identified some gaps in the data that is currently held around disadvantage and diversity. The committee is looking at ways to capture this information so that we can better understand those aspects and how they are represented in child and youth mortality in the ACT.
Better systems and improved culture around information sharing will shape the way we support and protect young people. The key recommendation of this report is the need for government and related support services to improve the systems and culture
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