Anti-Violence Grant

Originally Released: February, 1999
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THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SHOCK TRAUMA CENTER AND LT. GOVERNOR KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND ANNOUNCE GRANTS TO CURB VIOLENCE IN MARYLAND

The University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center joined forces with Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to stop the chain of violence that brings some people back to the trauma center multiple times for treatment of violent injuries. With the help of a $130,000 state grant, staff at the Shock Trauma Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will help repeat victims of violence change their lives to avoid future violent injuries.

Lt. Governor Townsend and Carnell Cooper, M.D., Co-Investigator and Associate Professor, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center announced details of the project at a press conference on Wednesday, February 10 at 10:30 a.m. They explained how this partnership enables the state of Maryland to take a lead in violence prevention. The grant will enable physicians, social workers and researchers at the Shock Trauma Center to work with repeat victims and develop individualized treatment plans. The goal of the program, which may become a national model for public health, is to link patients with community support services. The researchers also hope to gain a better understanding of the factors associated with repeat victimization.

"The time when someone is hospitalized for a traumatic injury offers a golden opportunity' to intervene," says Paul Stolley, M.D., M.P.H, Co-Investigator, Chairman and Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "It's our experience that the victims are very receptive to positive changes after surviving a life-threatening injury."

In a previous study of 200 repeat victims of violence, patients were asked what might decrease their chance of future violent injury. The most common answers were to stop drinking and doing drugs, find a job, change who they hang out with, and "move out of my neighborhood." The new prevention program will focus on hospital-based intervention, including social work and rehabilitation, and a community link component that will incorporate education, counseling, housing, healthcare and employment.

"The multiplicity of risk factors and the fact that they are interrelated mandate a comprehensive approach to the difficult problem of violence, particularly for recidivist victims," says Dr. Cooper. "To be successful, such programs must operate in communities and must deal with all the factors affecting recidivism: poverty, substance abuse, unemployment, dysfunctional families, violent neighborhoods, and confrontational attitudes."

Last year alone, the Shock Trauma Center treated 1,260 victims of violence, providing resuscitation, surgery and rehabilitation services. For 76 percent of these patients, the cost of care was borne by the hospital or a governmental provider. Approximately 25 percent of the patients had been treated previously for trauma resulting from violence.

"Just as we have been successful at reducing death and serious injury from car crashes, we would like to intervene in the lives of our patients injured by violence so that they do not suffer such injuries again," says John W. Ashworth III, MHA, Director, Shock Trauma Center.

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This page was last updated on: April 10, 2009.