Dive Brief:
- "Healing Hurt People," a hospital-based support program that began at Hahnemann Hospital in 2007, is set to expand to three more Philadelphia-area hospitals during the next two years, reports NBC Philadelphia. The program assists victims of violence who access the hospital via the ER.
- "It's the first time any major city has implemented a hospital-based violence intervention program of this size," NBC reports.
- The program will be added at Temple University, Einstein Medical Center and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Each of the hospitals will be responsible for helping to staff the new program with city funding.
Dive Insight:
According to NBC, research indicates that without intervention, up to 45% of shooting or stabbing victims will likely be shot or stabbed again within just five years.
The program unrolling in Philadelphia aims to break the cycle through case management services and behavioral health interventions.
The program's other also seeks to prevent victims of violence from retaliating against those who injured them.
"It's an opportunity where people are really at that pivotal moment where they can choose change or retaliation," Dr. Theodore Corbin, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel, told NBC. "Our efforts are to help them heal and also choose change."