NNEDLearn 2013 Participant: Virginia Commonwealth University–Injury and Violence Prevention Program
Description: Bridging the Gap is a hospital initiated program that provides youth who have been victims of violence with support that addresses the social, emotional, behavioral and physical needs of these patients and their families.
The program targets injured youth who have been admitted to the hospital for a violent injury such as gunshot wound, stab wound, or assault injury. The intervention begins in the hospital and continues post-discharge in the community, and is a family based intervention. The program provides a brief hospital-based intervention to youth during their hospital stay, and provides comprehensive community-based care management to youth and their family to ensure that they obtain and continue to access needed services.
Population of focus: Young men between the ages 10-24.
Setting: Hospital, Community center
Level of intervention: Individual, Family, Community
Background: The program was developed to reduce and prevent injury and violence, the subsequent health care demands, and its associated costs among youth within the Richmond (Virginia) metropolitan area through research, education, and community outreach programs. The program is based on the idea that healthcare providers have a unique relationship with youth victims — seeing them at their most weak and vulnerable moments when they come in as patients.
A multidisciplinary team began developing the program in 2006 and first implemented it in 2007. The program is a collaborative effort between: Division of Trauma’s Injury and Violence Prevention Programs, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Department of Patient Care Coordination.
Contact:
Anne Jordan
Injury and Violence Prevention Program
jordana2@vcu.edu
804-827-1207
http://www.ivpp.vcu.edu