October 2, 2019
Confronting Firearm Deaths Among Youth In The US
The month of June is Gun Violence Awareness Month
Throughout the month, there will be multiple events across the country to commemorate those who have been victims of gun violence
In addition, these events will work to bring awareness to the importance of preventing future acts of violence. In New York City, numerous events will highlight the issue of gun violence as a public health epidemic and the many ways in which the community can get involved.
At Doctors of the World, we believe that the issue of gun violence in the United States should be treated as a public health epidemic. This stems from the belief that violence can be addressed in a similar way as a disease can.
The idea is that if violence can be identified and addressed via community, school and hospital-based interventions, then it can effectively be prevented from spreading within the community.
The community based model most commonly followed is the Cure Violence model, which seeks to detect and interrupt violent conflicts, identify high risk individuals and provide outreach services to them, and change community social norms around violence.
Hospital-based violence interventions also seek to address violence by reaching out to victims of violent assault during the ‘golden window’, the period just after they enter the hospital, to provide support, identify their needs for additional services and prevent further retaliation and violence.
Across the country gun violence has been steadily decreasing in recent years
This has led many to believe that we are past the high homicide rates that many cities saw in the past. However, the issue of endemic gun violence and violent crime continues to be perpetuated in small pockets of mostly urban communities that are often marginalized and ignored for a whole host of complicated reasons.
Recent reports within NYC shows that while the city has seen significant reductions in violence, that there are still areas of the city where crime is on the rise in 2019.
Doctors of the World (DotW) seeks to address the issue of urban gun violence and support the field of gun violence prevention by developing programming, resources and training opportunities with local, regional and national partners.
We are currently partnering with Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in their Stand Up to Violence program (SUV). The SUV Program is a hospital-based violence prevention initiative located in the Bronx, NY that works to improve outcomes in patients admitted for violent trauma and prevent community violence through an intervention that employs community outreach workers both within the hospital setting, as well as out in the community.
We are also developing additional partnerships throughout the New York City area
These partnerships are with other organizations and trauma hospitals that implement violence intervention programs. DotW continues to search for opportunities for collaboration, learning and growth in this area. For more information about what we do and to contact us about our work, you can reach out to us through our webpage.
You can also get involved with Gun Violence Awareness Month by attending one of the events happening during the month of June. Follow this link for more information about events near you.