For Milwaukee’s children, an early grave, By Crocker Stephenson, January 22, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “On a bitter January afternoon, a 22-year-old mother sits on the edge of her bed and feeds her infant daughter. The child, Rashyia, born in December, is healthy. She coos, eyes closed. She touches her mother’s cheek with her perfect hand. Rashyia and her mother, Lakisha Stinson, live in a small attic apartment on Milwaukee’s near north side. Three modest rooms. The kitchen has just three chairs and a table that is missing its glass top. The living room has no furniture. The bedroom has a bed and a Pack ‘n Play crib, a gift from Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph’s Hospital, whose staff, nurses and doctors brought Rashyia through a high-risk pregnancy and into the world. Rashyia and her mother live in a neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies, such as Rashyia, die during their first year of life is worse than Botswana. Public health experts have long considered the infant mortality rate to be an essential indicator of a community’s well-being…”
It takes a community to keep babies alive, Editorial, January 22, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s littlest children are dying at appalling rates – rates that are among the worst in the country; rates that rival the world’s poorest nations. These are babies who never live to blow out their first birthday candle – three-quarters of them dead before they are a month old. They are babies such as the little boy born prematurely to Denelle McManus in January 2007. Denelle was in good health; she had good prenatal care; she didn’t smoke or drink. She was 32 years old when she lost her child. The boy, named Tavion, lived eight days before dying of a heart condition. Denelle’s mother, Patricia McManus, is chief executive of the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin. An expert in urban issues, McManus has worked 30 years to reduce Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate and now believes that it will take a communitywide effort to save these children, an effort that is beginning to take shape with McManus as one of the leaders…”
Behavioral, mental health problems play big role in other childhood issues, By Erin Andersen, January 25, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “One in 10 Nebraska kids is not all right. One in 10 suffers from some sort of behavioral health problem, according to the 2010 Kids Count in Nebraska report being issued Tuesday by Voices for Children. Those kids — with behavioral, emotional and psychological troubles — make up more than 26 percent of children in foster care, 65 to 70 percent of the children in the juvenile justice system and a disproportionate number of school drop-outs and children in poverty, said Melissa Breazile, research coordinator for Voices for Children in Nebraska. This year’s Kids Count report is a mixed bag. While graduation rates have increased and dropout, school expulsion and infant mortality rates have dipped, poverty and its many related issues have increased — some rather significantly…”
Kids Count sounds alarm on cuts, By Sam Womack, January 25, 2011, Omaha World-Herald: “In 2008, 34 youths with a history of behavioral health problems were dropped off at ‘safe haven’ locations throughout the state. In response, the state enacted big changes. The Legislature limited the safe abandonment law to infants less than 30 days old. In mid-2009 it passed legislation that created programs to connect families with resources to manage child behavioral health issues. This year, several of those services are on the chopping block. As a response, the 2010 Kids Count report focuses on Nebraska’s estimated 90,000 youths with mental, emotional or behavioral disorders, the services available and the need for more preventive action. Kids Count is compiled by Voices for Children, a statewide research and policy group that times the release of its report to the start of new state legislative sessions…”
