But this is beginning to change as Grady staff reimagine how – and when – they deliver holistic trauma care. Given the number of patients Grady treats for gun violence each year (more than 1,000 gunshot victims and 171 deaths in 2020 alone), it may be surprising that the hospital does not have a HVIP. These programs are desperately needed, as an estimated 41 percent of patients treated for violent injury are reinjured within five years. They focus on the unique needs of each patient and link them to services that address their specific risk factors, such as treatment for substance misuse, housing assistance, or education and job opportunities. The interventions are grounded in research showing that victims of gun violence are at elevated risk for reinjury and highly susceptible to engaging in retaliatory violence.Īt the heart of these programs are specially trained violence prevention professionals, who intervene with injured patients while they are in the hospital to discourage retribution, attend to the psychological trauma, and provide intensive case management services. One important intervention in the public health ecosystem is hospital-based violence intervention programs, or HVIPs.
#Trauma center second opinion ending full
When effectively implemented, these strategies have the power to end the scourge of cyclical gun violence on a broad scale - but to realize their full potential, we must invest in them. They identify the individuals at greatest risk of violence, leverage credible messengers who can coordinate wraparound services and mitigate its spread, and monitor healing and growth through long-term connection and engagement. Research indicates that the most-effective violence reduction strategies treat violence like any other health epidemic. Over the past 20 years, while much of the country has turned a blind eye to the gun violence crisis, communities of color and a growing network of public health allies have devised a slate of innovative, evidence-informed strategies that approach violence as a disruption of the public health ecosystem. The good news is that effective solutions exist. Even as a recent Government Accountability Office study conservatively estimated the treatment costs for gun violence injuries at $1 billion annually, the level of public investment in preventing firearms-related injuries lags far behind most other public health priorities. That’s more than the number of Americans who die from malnutrition, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, viral hepatitis and many other conditions combined. Each year, more than 115,000 people are shot in America, and more than 43,000 lives are lost.
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