PEORIA, Ill. – A group of Peoria officials are continuing efforts to help the number of accidental deaths of infants in the county gets closer to zero.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood helps lead the Infant Death Prevention Task Force.
“The data from 2019 wasn’t horrible,” said Harwood. “I believe that we had five infant deaths in Peoria County in 2019. But, in 2020, that number went up to nine. We knew that we had a significant issue with risk factors, and we needed to put forth a huge collaboration with prevention.”
Harwood says the number of accidental infant deaths dropped back to five last year, but there is already one this year, as of last week.
The Infant Death Prevention Task Force is made up of Harwood and police, fire, medical, and hospital officials. Harwood says the greatest concern lies within another problem.
“Poverty is going to be at the center of most of this,” said Harwood. “We’re looking at risk factors of teenage mothers, we’re looking at moms who are in poverty, who have educational disparities, they have food disparities, housing disparities, and healthcare disparities as well.”
Harwood says the task force is looking at three zip codes in particular — 61603, 61604, and 61605 — to try to make sure educational opportunities are had, from learning how to properly breastfeed, to making sure parents get to doctor appointments, and even making sure others in the home have what they need to help take care of little ones.
Harwood says forming the task force, has been an education for him as well, related to those resources.
“I was a nurse for 22 years in the Peoria area. If I don’t know these resources exist, how does anybody else know that they exist?” said Harwood. “It’s like the healthcare system alone is disjointed anyway. When you’re trying to piece together different things for someone who is absolutely in need and has the best intentions for caring for their kid, where do they find it?”
Harwood says that’s how members of the task force became involved. Anyone who also thinks they have information or expertise they can provide and wants to be involved, should contact Harwood’s office at (309) 669-2000.
