Child Health: Our Challenge

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New! Doctors Urge Prime Minister and Premiers to Take Action on Child and Youth Health - October 15, 2007

Open Letter to the Prime Minister - October 15, 2007

Canada's Child Health and Youth Charter - October 15, 2007

For the first time in history, there is a risk that today's younger generations will live shorter lives than their parents. Canada must do better.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society, and The College of Family Physicians of Canada have formed an alliance to create a new healthy legacy for the children of Canada. Our goal is to make Canada one of the top five nations with the healthiest children. To achieve this we are enlisting the support of other concerned organizations in the development and implementation of a Child Health Charter and a Child Health Challenge.

	Canada's infant mortality rates have stalled at 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births (2003) while many other OECD nations' mortality rates continue to drop.
	Obesity rates among Canadian children have tripled in just two decades.
	Injury remains a leading cause of death among children.
	Only one in six mentally ill children in Canada receives treatment for mental illnesses.
	Among Canada's Aboriginal children, infant mortality is higher, there is more obesity, type-2 diabetes mellitus, and unintentional injury and deaths are far more common.