Online forum to focus on how health systems can work within their communities to prevent firearm deaths and injuries

Recognizing the pivotal role of health care providers in curbing the national surge in gun violence that claimed a record 44,972 lives in 2021, the Northwell Health Center for Gun Violence Prevention and PEACE Initiative are cosponsoring an April 25th gun violence prevention workshop hosted and led by the prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine.

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Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling speaks at the Northwell Gun Violence Prevention Forum. Credit Northwell Health.

The five-hour workshop, entitled “Facilitating the integration of firearm injury prevention into health care through community collaboration,” will include insights from the nation’s leading trauma surgeons, mental health specialists, policy analysts, the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and front-line community leaders who have established gun violence prevention initiatives.

As part of an ongoing effort to advance firearm safety, education, violence prevention and research, Northwell Health has been mobilizing a national coalition of health care professionals, hospitals, and health systems to address this public health crisis. To date, more than 500 healthcare professionals from hospitals and health systems across 36 states have joined Northwell’s Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Hospitals and Health Systems.

The National Academies’ workshop will include discussions about the current evidence on gun violence prevention strategies, the role of facilitators, barriers to implementing strategies, and how health systems can work to overcome those barriers to improve the health of patients and the communities they serve. Topics covered will be:

• Framing of the issue: Firearm Injuries and Healthcare’s Role in Depolarizing A Public Health Crisis
• Healthcare Strategies to Reduce Firearm Injury and Mortality
• Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Hospital-Based Firearm Injury Prevention Strategies in Urban and Rural Communities
• Collaborating with Community to Improve Healthcare System Implementation Success and Destigmatize Gun Violence Prevention
• Defining a Firearms Violence Prevention Roadmap for Hospitals and Health Systems

Among the featured speakers will be Debra Houry, MD, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the CDC, who will discuss how health care providers can help depolarize the politics around gun violence by addressing the issue through a public health lens.

Trauma surgeons and critical care specialists from some of the nation’s preeminent academic medical centers, as well as leaders of community-based violence prevention programs will examine strategies that have proven effective in reducing firearm injuries and deaths. They will also outline a roadmap for how hospitals and health systems in both urban and rural areas can engage with their communities in developing violence intervention initiatives tailored to meet local needs.

“Given the continuing spike in firearm-related deaths and injuries across the country, hospitals and health systems must treat gun violence as the urgent public health crisis that it is by proactively funding prevention research, protocols and interventions,” said Northwell President & CEO Michael Dowling, who will give opening remarks at the workshop. “We’re honored to partner with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to engage more hospitals and health systems in pursuing solutions to the violence tearing away at the fabric of the communities we serve.”

As New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer with a workforce of 78,000, Northwell in 2020 established a Center for Gun Violence Prevention led by pediatric trauma surgeon Chethan Sathya, MD, and has convened three Gun Violence Prevention Forums to help build a network of health care executives and practitioners to advocate for change. In 2021, it established a Gun Violence Prevention Learning Collaborative for Health Systems and Hospitals, providing a monthly forum for health professionals to share ideas and best practices that have proven effective in mitigating street violence, suicide and accidental shootings.

Scheduled to run from 12 noon until 5:15 p.m., the National Academies’ April 25th workshop is free and open to all. Click here for more information and/or to register.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 22 hospitals, 830 outpatient facilities and more than 16,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 78,000 employees – 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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