To fight infant mortality in the state and nationwide, Delaware is joining Missouri, Louisiana, North Carolina and Hawaii in a new State Infant Mortality (SIM) Collaborative. Delaware's application was selected from among 13 invited states with increasing, stagnating or high infant mortality rates.

The Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which organized the project, will provide support for Delaware representatives to attend a kick-off event Sept. 20-21, in Atlanta. The co-chairs of Governor Ruth Ann Minner's Infant Mortality Task Force -- Jaime Rivera, MD, director of the Division of Public Health, and Al Snyder, executive director of Children & Families First -- will attend this meeting.

The SIM Collaborative kick off will allow state representatives to meet with national experts to:

-- discuss strategies and tools for investigating infant mortality,

-- identify possible causes and action steps, and

-- develop activities to help reduce infant mortality.

Information from the two-year collaborative project will be shared with Governor Ruth Ann Minner's Infant Mortality Task Force in order to build a comprehensive action plan.

Source: Delaware Health and Social Services