Reorienting Family Services: The Professional Response to Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy - Issues and Protocols

David Tipene-Leach, Sally Abel, Carole Everard, Riripeti Haretuku

This paper discusses key service and support issues faced by families who have experienced a sudden unexplained death of an infant (SUDI), the majority of which are from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), within an environment of increasing social inequality and poor service coordination.

The issues include: changes in the social and economic environments of SUDI families; the forensic focus of the professional response to a SUDI; inadequate training, audit and interagency coordination of key service agencies; and poor data collection for review and for tracking trends.

The paper also discusses strategies developed by the Māori SIDS Prevention Programme (MSPP) team to address these issues. These include the development, in consultation with key players, of an integrated and holistic national SUDI death scene protocol with regional teams that facilitate the coordination of services at the local level. In addition, a child mortality review process is advocated. These issues and proposed strategies potentially have relevance to families facing other difficulties that require the support and/or involvement of a number of government and other agencies.