Presenter Profile
Shelby Crespi, MPH, CPST
Childhood Injury Prevention Program
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital | Stanford Medicine Children's Health
PhD Student | Stanford University
screspi@stanfordchildrens.org
Shelby Crespi, MPH is a Community Relations Specialist in the Childhood Injury Prevention Program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health/Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. She is a first year PhD student at Stanford University studying Epidemiology and Clinical Research. Her work at Stanford Medicine Children’s focuses on preventing accidental childhood injuries in vulnerable populations throughout the Bay Area using a community-engaged framework. As the Santa Clara/San Mateo Safe Kids Coordinator, Shelby manages a coalition of over 50 child and family serving organizations with the goal of delivering injury prevention workshops, education, and supplies into the community with a unified approach. Her overall goal is using research and community-engaged approaches to address disparities in accidental and non-accidental childhood injuries and overall prevention of injury. She is the co-chair for the Injury Free Coalition for Kids Safe Sleep Subcommittee
Presentations
Safe Sleep
Jennifer E. McCain, MD
Lorrie Lynn, MA, CPSTI
Shelby Crespi, MPH, CPST
Meeting the Community Where they Are: Reaching Underserved Populations through Partnership with A Home Visiting Nurse Program
Shelby Crespi, MPH, CPST
Salvador Vargas, CPST-I
Melissa Burke, MPH
Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for children ages 1-19. Falls and motor vehicle crashes are among the top mechanisms of injury observed in the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Pediatric Emergency Department. To prevent these injuries, the Childhood Injury Prevention Program uses a partnership approach to reach underserved families throughout the Bay Area.
The Childhood Injury Prevention Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has partnered with the San Mateo County Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) Program for seven years to reach underserved families with important safety information and supplies. The NFP Program is an evidence-based, national, nurse home-visiting program. First-time expecting parents are paired with a Public Health Nurse who provides case management from pregnancy through the child’s second birthday. Families enrolled in the program are from historically underserved populations: low income, English Language Learners, racial/ethnic minorities, single parents, young or teen parents, or are experiencing substantial hardship. Safety workshops are taught by LPCHS Childhood Injury Prevention Program Staff (certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians) and cover: child passenger safety, falls prevention (furniture tip overs, stair falls, falls from furniture, trips/slips, and window falls), home safety (water safety, burns and scalds prevention, poison prevention, choking prevention). Each family takes a 2-hour safety workshop three times while enrolled in the NFP Program – while expecting, when their child is 12 months, and at 24 months before families graduate from the program. At each stage, parents are provided with safety information specific to their child’s current age and development as well as what to expect later. Families are also provided with safety supplies at no cost including an appropriate car seat, pack n plays, sleep sacks, 46-piece home safety kits, and window locks. Classes are hosted in English and Spanish by Child Passenger Safety Technicians. The class is facilitated in other languages, such as Thai, Ukrainian, and Portuguese, using translators. Knowledge change is assessed through pre and post surveys. Public Health Nurses reinforce injury prevention education while conducting in-home visits and make suggestions to modifications to child’s environment to promote safety.
In 2022, 80 families were provided with education and safety supplies. Families demonstrated increases in knowledge around confidence in installing car seats, understanding the safest place for a child to ride in a car, attitudes around bedsharing with infants, and other safety topics. Families taking safety classes three times, as well as in-home reinforcement of injury prevention knowledge by Public Health Nurses, results in program participants selecting the appropriate safety measure or behavior 90%-100% of the time by the end of the program.
Injury prevention messaging is best retained and results in positive behavior change using multiple touchpoints and education modalities. Consistent, age-appropriate injury prevention education coupled with in-home reinforcement and free safety supplies leads to families reporting prioritizing safety. Moreover, reaching families during pregnancy and in their child’s/children’s early years helps to establish a culture of safety in which parents and caregivers prioritize injury prevention and can proactively adapt to their children’s safety needs as they grow.
1. Understanding how to establish a partnership with community-based organizations and home-visit nursing programs
2. Assess impact of comprehensive, accessible injury prevention education and safety supplies in underserved communities using health equity approach
3. How to establish trust and conduct follow up to maintain attendance over several sessions