This study will describe Boston Medical Center's (BMC) Community Violence
Response Team (CVRT) a program that provides mental health services to victims of
interpersonal violence. Though these services are offered to all traumatic injury patients
regardless of specific injury type, CVRT patients are almost exclusively victims of
gunshot and stab wounds. This study focuses specifically on this patient population.
CVRT counselors work in close collaboration with members of BMC's Violence
Intervention Advocacy Program, as well as physicians and staff of the Emergency and
Trauma departments. While many hospitals have violence intervention programs (VIPs),
BMC is one of the first hospitals in the country to integrate mental health services into
the hospital-based model of violence intervention and violent injury prevention.
It is planned to conduct anonymous recorded interviews of people who have been
through the violence intervention programs and received mental health services. A
professionally licensed member of CVRT will screen the patient database for potential
interview subjects. Subjects will be chosen based on when and for how long they were
involved with our programs, as well as other factors such as injury type and language
spoken. The subjects' anonymity will be protected and risks minimized as much as
possible throughout the screening and interview process.
Interview data will be examined for trends among the clients served. This will be
a first look at evaluating CVRT, which was launched in 2011. The purpose of this study
is to provide feedback on BMC's novel model for an integrated hospital-based violence
intervention program and mental health services program for victims of interpersonal
violence. The patient's perspective on these programs will provide valuable insight on
this approach to violence intervention. The benefits of this model will be explored to
identify any ways in which violence intervention services at BMC might be improved.
Outcomes of the assessment of study data will be used to generalize the model for
adaptation in other trauma centers.
In addition, it is anticipated that this study will demonstrate the importance of
seamless, integrated collaboration between community advocates of hospital-based
intervention programs and trained professionals dedicated to providing mental health care to this vulnerable patient population and their families. It is hypothesized that BMC's
integrated model for violence programming makes it easier for patients to take advantage of mental health services. This ease of access and comfortable transition from advocacy interventions to mental healthcare may translate into better long-term outcomes for patients. More patients may also use mental health services with this model than with a model that requires patients to access mental health services at another facility. A detailed explanation of BMC's programs complete with patients' experience will inform other institutions which may choose to adapt this integrated model to their practices.
Finally, this pilot study will inform future research on violent injury patients and
their treatment. This research has the potential to improve recovery and quality of life for
future violent injury patients at BMC and other trauma centers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/16123 |
| Date | 08 April 2016 |
| Creators | Levin, Samantha |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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