The safety of infants who are staying in the city shelter system is a priority for DHS and its providers. Every family with an infant is provided with information on numerous ways to ensure their children are safe and protected from potential hazards. This information is provided when families apply for shelter at DHS' families with children intake center (PATH), and again once they enter shelter. All clients are required to watch the video "A Life to Love," produced by the New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS), which includes tips on Safe Sleeping, the hazards of leaving children unattended in a bath or a car, the importance of window guards, Shaken Baby Syndrome, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, car seat usage, stairwell gates, cabinet safety latches and other protective devices.
DHS has coordinated a Safe Sleeping campaign in the shelter system, providing detailed information to families with children about the best ways to ensure infants sleep properly in the safest possible environment. At PATH, pregnant women and families with babies younger than one year old receive counseling and literature regarding Safe Sleeping from a Health Educator. Upon entering shelter, all families with children two years old or younger are provided with a crib, receive Safe Sleeping counseling from their Case Manager or other shelter staff and sign a Client Crib Assignment Form, stating that they understand that cribs should be used only for sleeping. Within 24 hours of their arrival, families are requested to view the ACS video, "A Life to Love." Posters and literature on Safe Sleeping are provided to families throughout their shelter stay. Shelter staff follow up with families in their rooms on a weekly basis for the first four months of a baby's life, and twice monthly thereafter, to ensure cribs are used in a proper manner. If a parent is found to be sharing their bed with a baby, case managers and/or other DHS staff will speak with them about the dangers of bed-sharing and the possible harm to their baby.
