Hospital gun-violence prevention programs may be caught in federal funding crossfire | Global News Avenue

Seven years ago, Erica Green learned through Facebook post that her brother had been shot.

She was eager to check him in a hospital run by the city’s safety net system, Denver Health, but she couldn’t get information from emergency room staff who complained that she was causing harassment.

“I was upset and cried outside, and Jerry came out,” she said.

Jerry Morgan is a familiar face in the Denver community in Green. He rushed to the hospital after his pager reminded him of the shooting. As a Violence Prevention Professional High-risk intervention and guidance programsOr AIM, Morgan supports gun violence patients and their families in the hospital – just as Green’s brother was shot to death.

“It makes this traumatic experience better. After that, I want to do the job.”

Today, Green works with Morgan as AIM Program Manager, a hospital-connected violent intervention program launched in 2010 as a partnership between Denver Health and nonprofits Denver Youth Program. Since then, it has expanded to include Colorado Children’s Hospital and University of Colorado Hospital.

AIM is one of dozens of violent intervention programs connected to hospitals across the country. The program is designed to reveal the social and economic factors that cause someone to be injured in an emergency room: for example, housing, unemployment or unsafe nearby.

Such a program Public health approach Stop Gun Violence Success – A report from San Francisco Reclining rate of violent injury has been reduced by four times More than six years. But President Trump’s executive order calls for review of the Biden administration’s gun policy and receive trillions of dollars in loans and loans in federal grants, creating uncertainty over the program’s long-term federal funding. Some organizers think their plans will be good, but others want to ask for alternative sources of funding.

“We’ve been worried about dominoes affecting us? There are a lot of unknowns,” said John Torres, deputy director of youth for the Oakland, California-based nonprofit.

Federal data show that gun violence has become the leading cause of death for children and young people at the beginning of this decade and has been bound to more than 48,000 deaths among people of all ages in 2022. Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon based in New York, and an injury prevention researcher at the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Health, believes that gun violence has violated guns because gun violence has violated guns, which is a limited violation. “This killed a lot of people,” Satya said.

Research shows that according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Trauma: Journal of Injury, Infection, and Intensive Care, violent injury puts someone at future risks and has a significant increase in the risk of death.

Benjamin Li, an emergency medicine physician with the Denver Health Department and the health system’s health director, said the emergency room is an ideal place to intervene in gun violence by reversing the causes of injuries that lead to patients.

“If you just see this person, tinker with them and then send them back to the exact same situation, we know that it will cause them to be hurt again,” Lee said. “It’s crucial that we address the social determinants of health and then try to change the equation.”

“It could mean providing alternative solutions to shooting victims who may seek revenge.

“If it helps them relocate to the area, then if that allows them to get housing, if that shifts the energy to education or work, or you know about home remedies, regardless of the needs of a particular situation and individual, that’s what we offer,” Davis said.

AIM outreach workers met with gunshot victims next to the hospital’s bedside to get Aim’s chief outreach Morgan said how the patient finally got there for a difficult, unjudgmented conversation.

Morgan said AIM uses that information to help patients with the resources they need to meet the biggest challenges after they are discharged. These challenges may include returning to school or working, or finding housing. AIM outreach workers may also participate in court proceedings and assist with transport to health care appointments.

“We do everything we can to help, but it’s interdependent with everything our customers need,” Morgan said.

Since 2010, AIM has grown from three full-time outreach workers to nine, opening this year Arrive at the clinic in the five-point community in Denver. Community-based clinics offer wound care kits; physical therapy; and behavioral, psychological and occupational health care. In the coming months, it plans to add bullet removal to its services. It’s part of the growing movement of community clinics Focus on violent harmincluding bullet-related injury clinics in St. Louis.

Ginny McCarthy, assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado, describes REAGH as an extension of hospital-based work, providing holistic treatment in one location and building trust between health care providers and people of color, while historically experiencing historically experienced communities Racial bias in medical care.

Into a firefightfounded in 1994 and run by Alive in Oakland, is cited as the first violent intervention program in the United States to connect with hospitals, and has since inspired others. this Violent Intervention Health AllianceThis is a national network initiated by teenagers alive to promote public health solutions for gun violence, 74 Hospitals and Violent Intervention Program Membership as of January.

Executive Director of the Alliance, Fatimah Loren fearsto compare the role of medicine in solving gun violence and the role of preventing infectious diseases such as cholera. “If there is no good hygiene in places where people gather, the disease will spread,” she said.

Dreier also serves Kaiser Permanente Center for Research and Education for Gun Violencesaid medicine recognizes and tracks patterns that lead to the spread of the disease or in this case violence.

“That’s what healthcare can do well to change society. When we deploy it, we bring better results for everyone,” Dreier said.

The alliance aims to provide technical assistance and training for hospital-linked violent intervention programs Successful petition Eligible for traditional insurance reimbursement for their services.

In 2021, President Joe Biden released Execute actions This opens the door for states to use Medicaid to prevent violence. Including several states, including California,,,,, New Yorkand Coloradohave Legislation for establishing Medicaid A violent intervention program used to contact the hospital.

Last summer, then-American surgeon Vivek Murthy Public health crisis of gun violenceand 2022 Two-Party Safer Community Law Next year, $1.4 billion will be allocated to fund various violence prevention programs.

But in early February, Mr. Trump released Executive Order Instructed the U.S. Attorney General to conduct a 30-day review of Biden’s many policies on gun violence. White House Office Now Preventing Gun Violence It seems to have been discontinuedthe recent move to freeze federal grants has created uncertainty in the program to prevent gun violence that has received federal funds.

AIM receives 30% of its funding from its operating agreement with Denver Community Violence Solutions Officeaccording to Lee. The rest comes from the Department of Justice, including grants, including victims of the crime bill. As of mid-February, Mr. Trump’s executive order has not affected AIM’s current funding.

Some people who have a relationship with the Colorado-related violence prevention program hope for a new one Voters approved Firearms and ammunition consumption tax In the state, approximately $39 million is expected to generate annually and support victim services, which could be a new source of funding. However, income from tax revenues are expected to be fully circulated until 2026, and it is not clear how to distribute the money.

Catherine Velopulos, a trauma surgeon and public health researcher, is a very difficult task for us, said even in a few months, any disruption in federal funding. But Velopulos said she was relieved for her bipartisan support for the goal.

“People want to oversimplify the problem and then say, ‘If we get rid of the gun, everything will stop, or ‘It doesn’t matter what we do because they will pick up the gun anyway.’ “What we really want to solve is why people feel so scared that they have to arm themselves. ”

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