What’s worse than getting shot? Getting shot more than once. Surgeons at University Hospital in Cinncinnati are working on a program that will focus on not just preventing gun violence, but preventing repeats of it.
University Hospital surgeons Jay Johannigman and Kenneth Davis talk a lot about the teenager who came into the emergency room one night with stab wounds.
X-rays revealed the boy’s body still housed four bullets from previous shootings.
The two men hope a new initiative announced Monday will help prevent other young men from becoming repeat customers in their ER because of gun violence.
Hospital officials, Mayor Mark Mallory and the Cincinnati Bar Foundation announced Monday the start of “Out of the Crossfire,” a program organizers hope will stop victims of gun violence from becoming perpetrators of it.
Under the program, gunshot victims will be evaluated by a program coordinator to assess their employment history, education, living quarters, drug or alcohol use, environmental factors, socio-economic status, prior episodes or hospitalization for violence, coping skills and support systems.
The coordinator will also help the victim get individual or family counseling, develop a safety plan, find social service agencies for help and develop peer mentoring groups for victims.
Organizers hope solving issues such as unemployment and drug abuse can keep gunshot victims from turning to violence for retribution or returning to it as the only life they know.
Before a person is shot, there are other things we can do to prevent gun violence, specifically tightening gun regulations to make sure guns don’t reach the hands of someone who might shoot them in the first place. But after that first incident takes place, that’s when a program like this steps in, and works from the other side of things to keep victims from being victimized again.
The goal of the initiative is to help gunshot victims heal physically and psychologically, and prevent further violence by helping the victims change their lives.
Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher said he is optimistic that the program, similar to one in Baltimore, can reduce gun violence.
Hospital workers have a chance to reach out to victims at a critical point, Streicher said.
“There’s an opportunity to show them there is another lifestyle, some other way of living their lives,” he said.
Sounds like a great idea to us, and we wish them a lot of luck with it. The effects of the large quantity of guns we have in this country (and the violence they make possible) are far-reaching. The more plans we can come up with an implement to stop the violence, the better.
