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| LOUIS T. BENEZET AWARD RECIPIENT
1992 |
Michael J. Durfee '64
Children all over the country, along with those who care about the very
young, have reason to thank Michael J. Durfee. The Los Angeles child psychiatrist
originated the nation's first team-review system to look into the deaths
of children due to maltreatment. his leadership resulted in the development
of similar teams in other states and has led to focus on the prevention
of child abuse.
In the late '70s, as director for Los Angeles County's child-abuse-prevention
program, Michael studied coroners' findings and became convinced that
many probably maltreatment deaths were being misdiagnosed. Parents were
literally getting away with murder, even though doctors, police officers,
public health nurses, and other child service workers were suspicious
of their involvement. Michael built a team of these professionals, thus
starting the first multi-agency Child Death Review Team.
Today there are similar Child Death Review Teams in 26 states covering
more than 112 million total population or 45% of the nation. As state
teams reach out to their neighboring states, it is expected that over
half the nation should be covered by the end of 1992 and that a national
team will be in place during 1993.
Under Michael's plan, core team members include the coroner/medical examiner,
a law enforcement officer, the prosecuting attorney, someone from child
protective services, and a health-field representative. Cases, which are
chosen from coroner's records or public health records, generally concern
very young children, with half of the victims under one year of age. The
team pulls pertinent medical, police, and social services records, pools
the information, studies the case, and then comes to a team consensus.
Peer review makes the team more vigorous and more accountable than if
any single agency were working alone.
The team's high rate of success was recently spotlighted in "Stop
the Child-Killers," an article in the February 1992 issue of Reader's
Digest magazine. The article, which credits Dr. Michael Durfee with
pioneering the team-review system, notes that Child Death Review Teams
do more than investigate. they also profile families with a potential
for fatal maltreatment, who can then be targeted for intervention programs.
Besides Michael's work with the Los Angeles County Department of Health,
the Massachusetts native is also assistant clinical professor of psychiatry,
behavioral sciences and pediatrics at the University of Southern California.
He has been a featured speaker at multiple national and international
Child Abuse Conferences.
As a man who has improved the safety of one of our nation's more precious
resources, its children, Michael Durfee is truly worth of the Benezet
Award.
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