(Memphis) Memphis Mayor A C Wharton is hoping to reduce gunshot wound victims by introducing a hospital based violence intervention program.
“Many time young folks, their concern is how are they going to get even,” said Mayor Wharton about some young gunshot wound victims that come into The MED Trauma Center.
“All that does is increase the number of admissions to the trauma center,” said Doctor Martin Croce who is the Director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at The MED.
Croce said there are more than 4000 trauma admissions each year and gunshot victims account for 10%.
The violence intervention program will launch in August with an intervention liaison.
The liaison will work with the victim, family and friends and connect them to community resources like counseling, mediation, GED classes and conflict resolution.
“If you’re able to just break it for a moment and say wait, wait, wait, wait. We’ve had enough of this,” said Mayor Wharton about the conversations that should be had with patients.
Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said that retaliation is something his officers work to combat daily,.
“The only thing they can think about when they are here is ‘let me get back on the streets so I can retaliate against the person that is responsible for me being here,’” said Armstrong. “At the end of the day the cycle perpetuates itself. There’s no end to this.”
The hope is not only to prevent injury and death but also to save money.
The MED has spent around $81 million in the past 3 years treating uninsured gunshot victims.
The hope is to reduce that number and the intervention liaison will pay for itself.
Right now, the program is sponsored through the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team through a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant.
