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Youth Gun Violence: A Pediatric Health Emergency
1/28/2022
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Event Description
St. Louis Children’s Hospital and SSM Cardinal Glennon, combined, see more children injured by gun violence than any city in the country.  SSM Cardinal Glennon is a part of the Hospital Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) and Life Outside of Violence (LOV) program with the goal of prevention and postvention care.  A panel of experts will help us understand the effects on our children and the region and what is being done to improve the lives of those affected and how we can protect the youth of the future. The speakers include: 
  •  Marya Strand, MD, MS, Professor of Pediatrics - Saint Louis University, Chief Medical Officer, VP for Medical Affairs -
    SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital
  • Joshua Dugal BSN, RN, TNS, EMTP, TCRN - Trauma Program Manager, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital
  • Melik D.H. Coffey, MSW, LCSW – SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital

In 2018, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital began participating in a community endeavor with 3 other Level I Trauma Centers: Barnes Jewish, St. Louis Children’s and SSM Health St. Louis University. This endeavor is the Life Outside of Violence (LOV) program. LOV works to promote positive alternatives among individuals injured by violence in order to reduce retaliation, criminal involvement, re-injury and death. Hospitals are well positioned to interrupt the cycle of violence by intervening at a uniquely teachable moment when individuals have survived a violent injury. Victims of violence between the ages of 8-24 are matched with trained professional Social Workers (Program Mentors) who deliver evidence-based interventions such as brief intervention, trauma-informed treatment, case management, and faith-based intervention. There is cross-site hospital training of the program mentors, resource sharing, and communication activities.

There is also a repository of shared regional data in order to evaluate their primary objective (the reduction of recidivism for interpersonal violent injury) at the regional level. SSM Health Cardinal Glennon was excited about a collaborative opportunity to:
  • Break the cycle of violence and recidivism, and
  • Be a model for sharing the burden of making our entire community safer with the joint help of all of the cities trauma centers.

At the start of this initiative in 2018, a three-year grant was awarded by the Missouri Foundation for Health for LOV to strategically place program mentors (who are Licensed Clinical Social Workers) at each of the City’s major trauma centers to serve youth who are victims of interpersonal violence. When the MFH grant came to a close in 2021, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation secured additional funding for the HVIP at Glennon through Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits. This will sustain the program and also fund an additional staff position.

The meeting will be a virtual presentation.