The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention

Program Description

Administration
The New Mexico Child Fatality Review was (NM-CFR) established in 1998, with the implementation of Title 7 of the New Mexico Administrative Code (NMAC) Chapter 4- Disease Control, Part 5, Maternal, Fetal, Infant and Child Death Review (NMAC 7.4.5). The teams are coordinated and facilitated by the New Mexico Department of Health.

Teams
New Mexico’s CFR team consists of four state-level review panels. These include Child Abuse and Neglect; Suicide; Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SUID); and Unintentional Deaths. The membership of these panels include individuals representing various professional disciplines, topic experts, agencies, and advocacy groups.

State Team:
New Mexico’s CFR team consists of five state-level review panels. These include Child Abuse and Neglect, Suicide, Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SUID), Unintentional Deaths and Youth Violence. The membership of these panels includes individuals representing various professional disciplines, topic experts, agencies, and advocacy groups. Each panel meets monthly or quarterly to review cases, identify risk and protective factors, system failures or gaps, and determine prevention recommendations. This information is shared with policymakers, providers, communities, and the public in the annual report.

State Support Staff:
The NM-CFR state team consists of the NM-CFR Coordinator as well as colleagues from the Office of Injury and Violence Prevention.

Reviews
The NM-CFR reviews all non-natural child fatalities in New Mexico (NM). Deaths occurring on tribal land or reservations are not reviewed by the state CFR. Deaths are identified through the Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics and the NM Office of the Medical Investigator. This information is sent to the NM-CFR Coordinator, who collects case information and notifies the appropriate panel that the case is ready for review.

Purpose
The purpose of the NM-CFR is to gather and analyze information related to childhood fatalities to identify gaps in care and strategies to inform future prevention efforts. An important component of this is improving coordination among agencies that engage with families.

Data
NM-CFR uses the National Fatality Review Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS), the web-based database developed by the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention.

Annual Report
Per statute, NM produces an annual report.

Prevention Initiatives
NM-CFR findings have influenced policy changes and prevention initiatives.

Protocols
New Mexico has established CFR meeting protocols in place, which include terms of confidentiality.

Training
Training is ongoing for established panel members. New panel members receive training resources and mentoring. The Office of the Medical Investigator conducts training in death scene investigation.

Last Updated: March 2024