
DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997            TAG: 9702250201

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   59 lines

AREA CHILDREN AT RISK, HEALTH EXPERTS SAY

In brief presentations Monday - some punctuated with emotional photographs - 10 children's health experts delivered the ``Report on the Health of Children in Hampton Roads.''

That report drove home a painful message: Hampton Roads children are in trouble.

``We have sabotaged our future by ignoring our children,'' said Dr. John De Triquet, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and a local child abuse expert.

The presentation to more than 150 of the region's health-care professionals was the result of a year's work by the Coalition for Infant and Children's Health, or CINCH. The coalition is supported by the Center for Pediatric Research, a joint program between Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital.

A committee of more than 30 people, from doctors to socialworkers, compiled information on more than 65 children's health issues.

Then they cut that list to the 10 in which children's health in this region, which includes the Peninsula and the Eastern Shore, is significantly worse than the health of children in the rest of the state.

They include teen pregnancy, asthma, lack of prenatal health care and breastfeeding, low birthweight babies, child abuse, injuries, teen-age pregnancy, HIV/-AIDs, and under-immunization.

The issues are linked to three fundamental problems in our society, De Triquet said:

The community and individuals are less and less accountable for what we do to children, and what we don't do for children.

We invest in too many things other than our children. Our priorities are skewed.

We solve too many problems in our society through violence.

After the presentations, audience members ranked the issues.

The coalition will focus on the top three issues, through techniques including community education and development of new programs. It will announce its target issues early next month. ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo]

MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Dr. John De Triquet, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of The

King's Daughters, talks about child abuse in Monday's report at

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

HEALTH DATA

The Center for Pediatric Research was awarded a $50,000 grant

last week to compile statewide data on children's health issues.

The grant, from the Virginia Health Department, will provide the

first comprehensive look at why Virginia children enter hospitals,

said John Pestian, assistant professor at the center. The center is

a joint program between Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters

and Eastern Virginia Medical Center.