The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Program Helps Families but Needs Improvement

Gao ID: HRD-81-25 February 6, 1981

GAO reviewed the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Counseling and Information Program, the performance of selected program grantees and contractors, the extent of voluntary groups' participation in the grantees' project activities, program administration, and procedures for awarding and managing grants and contracts. Since 1975, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has provided assistance to families who have suffered a sudden infant death. Grants are awarded to public and nonprofit private entities. GAO reviewed case files and interviewed family members. Lack of sufficient data and a lack of HHS performance standards prevented a full evaluation of the project's effectiveness.

SIDS projects generally were making progress in meeting program objectives. Autopsies were generally done promptly, and SIDS was recorded on death certificates when appropriate. The projects generally saw that parents were notified of the cause of death, given information on SIDS, and offered counseling. The project's performance varied considerably in seeing that parents were notified and counseled within the period desired by HHS. Two major problems were the failure of some medical examiners and coroners to promptly inform the projects of SIDS deaths and the failure of many projects to collect sufficient data. The families GAO contacted believed the services were helpful. The extent of voluntary participation varied. HHS procedures for determining the funding of individual grantees resulted in excessive funding for several projects. HHS did not follow established procedures for making sure that grantees' unused funds were applied to the next year's funding.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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