Presenter Profile
Brenna Radigan
Florida Department of Health, Division of Children’s Medical Services
Brenna.Radigan@flhealth.gov
www.FLCADR.com
Brenna Radigan is the Prevention Specialist with the Child Abuse Death Review Unit (CADR) at the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) since 2018. Before coming to FDOH, Brenna has served in multiple roles within child welfare, including Child Protection Investigations and case management, Guardian Ad Litem and Forensic Interviewing. With a passion for public health and a commitment to making a difference, Brenna is dedicated to promoting childhood safety through information sharing, parental education, and strengthening families' protective factors. She participates in several workgroups, including the Florida Dept of Health’s Human Trafficking, Child Suicide Prevention, Watersmart Florida, and Infant Safe Sleep and has presented/co-presented at various conferences and summits showcasing her knowledge around data driven prevention initiatives related to child death. Brenna has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling Services from Florida State University, where she also participated in some master’s level classes for Policy Adminstration. Brenna has lived in Tallahassee for over 30 years and likes to spend time with family and friends, watch documentaries, read books and is very active in the yoga community.
Presentations
Utilizing Child Abuse Death Review (CADR) Data to Implement Statewide Prevention Initiatives
Brenna Radigan
Symone Ferguson
DeShanta Richardson
The Florida CADR System is charged with conducting case reviews on all incidents of child deaths investigated by the Florida Department of Children and Families with the purpose of achieving a greater understanding of the factors contributing to preventable child death and to address these factors through the development of effective prevention efforts. The CADR System utilized data to inform the development of prevention initiatives to specifically address the primary factors contributing to the leading causes of preventable child death as demonstrated through the CADR case review process including, sleep-related infant death, drowning, and inflicted trauma.
Through the CADR case review process, an examination of at least 688 child death incidents occurring in 2019-2021, demonstrated sleep-related infant death and drowning as the two leading causes of preventable child death of cases examined by the Florida CADR System. Data analysis of surrounding circumstances of sleep-related infant death and drowning highlight contributing factors which is utilized to inform the development of effective prevention efforts.
CADR data demonstrates the majority of sleep-related infant deaths in Florida are among infants 1-4 months of age, most frequently occurring in an unsafe sleep environment such as an adult bed, and the infant is most often found on their stomach when discovered unresponsive. Additionally, CADR data demonstrates that the majority of child drowning deaths occur in children 1-4 years of age and occur during non-swim time activities or when the child was not expected to be in or near the water. These critical factors along with other data derived from the CADR system were used in the design, development, and implementation of two data-informed prevention initiatives: Sleep Baby Safely and Keep Kids Safe From Drowning. Further examination of CADR data indicates geographical areas of the state with higher-than-state-average occurrence of sleep-related infant death and child drowning, allowing the CADR system to focus efforts in critical areas of the state to make the greatest initial impact, with an overarching goal of implementing the developed prevention efforts statewide.
In 2019, the CADR System implemented Sleep Baby Safely in Duval County, Florida as a pilot project. The examination of needed resources, support, and demonstrated outcomes of this pilot project promoted the expansion of Sleep Baby Safely to include eight additional counites in the state with higher-than-state-average incidents of sleep-related infant death. In 2022, the Florida legislature approved funds to support the expansion of this project as well as the Keep Kids Safe From Drowning prevention effort by allocating $2.8 million to these efforts. Both prevention initiatives have been implemented through the coordinated efforts of Local CADR Committee members and stakeholders, with continued examination of data collected through the CADR case review process for further evaluation of efficacy and to further support prevention initiative efforts.
1. Attendees of this presentation will outline methods utilized in the development of data-informed prevention initiatives, Sleep Baby Safely and Keep Kids Safe From Drowning.
2. Attendees will be able to demonstrate how data-informed prevention initiatives can address primary factors contributing to preventable child death and identify available and/or needed data sources.
3. This presentation will encourage attendees to examine existing data-informed prevention initiatives and evaluate gaps which may be addressed through further prevention initiative development.