As part of a multi-edition effort (e.g. here, here and here) to highlight compelling, fair, and informative local television news reporting, today we feature a segment on hospital based violence intervention programs reported on by Brianna Hollis at KXAN, the local NBC Affiliate in Austin, Texas. From the segment:
“Travis County is working on a program that could reduce retaliation as well as re-victimization. This initiative is called hospital-based violence intervention … Sometimes victims need help navigating the criminal justice system or even accessing mental health resources and oftentimes unfortunately victims either end up back in the hospital because of future attacks or even in jail for retaliatory attacks.
According to other cities that have implemented this program the most common needs for patients are mental health resources, legal assistance, employment, housing, and education. ‘Ultimately they could also then refer those victims to the trauma Recovery Center,’ said Terra Tucker with Alliance for Safety and Justice. Here in Travis County, Commissioners voted to set up the Trauma Recovery Center which will help provide these resources long term. The hospital-based intervention would act as a bridge to this facility. ‘Whatever it is that they need to help them heal, so that one-stop shop.’
The hospital-based intervention program in Travis County is still in its very early planning stages in Harris County. Forty-four patients have participated in the program since it launched in November … A similar method is proving to be successful out of Houston right now [and] several [other] major cities across the country use this program including Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco—and in Chicago people who received the services were less likely to get re-victimized. According to a review of that model, 20 percent of patients who didn’t join the program went back to the hospital within six months, while only eight percent of victims who did join the program went back to the hospital.”