Detroit has a higher child mortality rate than several third world countries such as Panama, Romania and Botswana, according to the findings of a six-month study conducted by Detroit News.
Analyzing thousands of pieces of data from state health departments across the city, the Detroit News compared 2010 death rates for children 18 years old and younger based on which major cities they lived in. What the paper found was that kids in Detroit die of common childhood illnesses and environmental conditions such as the flu and asthma than anywhere else.
The study also found that Detroit has the highest infant mortality rates as well, with some 2,300 infants dying between 2000 and 2011. In addition to a high death rate caused by common medical conditions, the second leading cause of death for young people in the city is related to violence, specifically guns, which were involved in the deaths of 36 children in 2010.
“This is a public health emergency in the city of Detroit,” said Dr. Herman Gray, executive vice president of pediatric health services for the Detroit Medical Center. “We are losing our future in really socially unacceptable ways.
“This is not just a police or criminal justice problem,” said Gray, also a former president of DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan. “This is a public health problem (that requires) a coordinated response from the public health agencies, the organized health infrastructure, from the philanthropic community, the educational system.
“Virtually everything that touches our children and youth in some way has to play a role. It really has to be a community effort to address this crisis for our kids.”
Kristen McDonald, vice president of program and policy at The Skillman Foundation, which focuses on improving the futures of Detroit children, agreed, “If kids aren’t safe, nothing else matters.
“The homicide is horrific, but we actually have to get to this comprehensive place where children are just plain safe, not only safe from homicide, but where they’re safe from any sort of attack or any violence when they’re trying to get to school or after-school programs.”
In 2010, 120 children died for every 100,000 children in the city of Detroit. The U.S. city with the next highest child mortality rate was Philadelphia, which had a rate of about 96 children dying per every 100,000 children in the city. The city with the lowest child mortality rate was San Jose, Calif., with 28.7 deaths per every 100,000 children.
Columbia University professor Dr. Irwin Redlener said one reason Detroit’s child mortality rate may be so high is because of the city’s dire economic conditions.
Redlener and singer Paul Simon co-founded New York City’s Children’s Health Fund, which partners with Detroit’s Henry Ford Health System to provide mobile health clinics in the city for schoolchildren. Redlener explained that impoverished conditions have prevented many residents from being able to access healthy foods, medical care, safe housing, police protection and transportation. As a result, many children’s health has been put at risk.
“You take a bad economy, cutbacks of services, cutbacks in police presence, corruption at the highest levels of government, and you have the impact of all that being an increasing malaise among the population,” Redlener said.
“Communities feel abandoned and betrayed by leadership; you add that to a bad economy and people worrying about how they’re going to pay their rent, and then cutbacks in the social programs create a very demoralizing environment where one is not surprised that there has been increased violence and homicidal fatalities.”
There is a silver lining to the story, though. Detroit Police Chief James Craig says the department has begun to target crime “hot spots” that have been identified by neighborhood watch groups. Hospitals and private foundations have begun to provide health clinics in Detroit’s public school system.
Gov. Rick Snyder has also made the issue a priority by funding “groundbreaking local research” that will allow the city to discover new ways to help reduce its infant mortality rate.
“It’s really important to highlight the really significant reasons for hope that have happened,” McDonald said. “I don’t want to miss that, because when we have that kind of momentum, it’s really important that we all talk about it. We can make this better.”