With child fatalities a steady problem in Onslow County, a team is doing all they can to help address why and prevent them from happening. 

While all 100 counties in North Carolina have a child fatality prevention team or child protection team, locally, the team consists of both, says Permanency Planning Program Manager Kimberly Mackey.

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Mackey, who is also chairman of the team, said the team was started in the early 1990s, due to the growing concern and awareness that child deaths in North Carolina were under-recognized and under-reported. 

Mackey said that the concern since COVID-19 hit has been the increase in suicides among youths and teens, as well as deaths due to unsafe sleeping practices. 

She said this involved everything from cosleeping, to parents with substance abuse problems that may have fallen asleep while cosleeping, and even unsafe sleepwear. 

"You've got blankets, you've got teddy bears and different things in the crib or the bassinet," Mackey said. "We say safe sleep is sleeping on the back. They may have them on their stomach and they may smother or something like that just on their own vomit because they're throwing up milk, not able to pull up their head." 

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Mackey said 2019 logged four child deaths due to unsafe sleep practices in Onslow County, which went back to 2018. Three more deaths were reviewed in 2020, and two in 2021. Already this year, she said they reviewed about four unsafe sleep practice deaths. 

With teen suicide, Mackey said there were about four in Onslow in 2019, and then two more the following year. She said the team's upcoming meeting will review two cases, both of which took place last year. 

"I think it had a lot to do with kids were not in school, there was some isolation going on," Mackey said. "Even as adults, we had a difficult time coping with that new normal. And with the kids not having access to their friends or having some type of outlet, they're at home, you get that state of depression or different things that are going on in the home, we're not getting reports because usually the schools are one of our biggest reporters, and things just happen." 

Accidental asphyxiation was the means of death for 33 children in the state in 2020, according to the North Carolina 2020 Yearly Child Fatality Summary.

It said infants constituted the majority of the asphyxiation deaths with 25 fatalities with all of them attributed to accidental asphyxiation in a sleep environment — either during cosleeping or by being placed in an unsafe sleep environment.  

The report also noted that suicide was the manner of death of 56 children in 2020. Most were between the ages of 15-17 years old, accounting for 35 deaths, or 63%. There were also 20 suicide deaths of children between the ages of 5-14 years old. Firearms were the leading manner of death with 30. 

Mackey said the team is comprised of different multi-disciplinary local and state-level groups, as well as government/agency leaders, and experts in child health and safety. 

"We come together to get a better understanding of the causes of child deaths, in order to really address systemic problems," Mackey said. "And then we try to implement strategies to prevent future child abuse, neglect, and death." 

The team reviews cases for the year prior and is currently reviewing 2021s. 

The Onslow County Child Fatality Prevention Team/Community Child Protection Team isn't only about reviewing cases, though. They also come up with strategies to address the problems Onslow is facing. 

Mackey said they've come up with suicide prevention strategies, substance abuse prevention due to instances where women using drugs during pregnancy have caused infant deaths, education efforts to teach correct sleep practices, community outreach and more.  

"We purchased and distributed pack and plays to prevent unsafe sleep practices and cosleeping," Mackey said. "We also partnered with the local health department to sponsor social media ads to promote safe sleep practices and suicide prevention in Onslow County."

In addition, the team purchased and distributed car seats, and partnered with the community paramedic program and peer parenting development program, doing a 5K walk/run with them to raise awareness, as well as to raise funds.  

"I think one of the barriers for protecting the children in Onslow County is the access to available and affordable mental health and substance abuse services, and that includes the parents, and then, of course, we service the military also," Mackey said. "This is a transient population, and I think that has a lot to do with it. It's a younger generation and because of the military, people come and then people go and of course, we know COVID-19 definitely had an impact and was a challenge for our community."

Onslow County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jack Bright said the county always tries its best to protect individuals that need protecting, commending the prevention and protection team. He also touched on the county's adoption process, and the important role it plays in the protection of Onslow's youth. 

"Our foster care program, that's part of what we do to protect our young citizens that can't speak or represent themselves, and we have a tremendous group of people that step up and become foster parents," Bright said. "A lot of those people actually end up, when they can, adopting those kids and giving them a forever home and that is so important."

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Bright added that so many parents get messed up in drugs, or mental health, and get criminally indicted for various things. He said the county then has to take care of those kids. 

"We really, as a county, do everything we can to protect the people that cannot protect themselves and that's one of the main things we do and there's other groups that step in and help out too," Bright said. "We have a tremendous amount of volunteers, have a tremendous amount of foster parents that take care of folks, and it's just amazing to me."

Bright added that those who foster and adopt have an iron skin, and a tremendously big heart. 

Anyone with questions, or who wants to donate to the cause, can contact Mackey at 910-219-1854. 

"We are trying our best to make a difference, helping to prevent these deaths that are occurring in Onslow County," Mackey said. 

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com