Violence Should Be Treated As Health Issue

Rather than viewing violence as tragic, yet inevitable, proposed legislation aims to bolster existing efforts to understand it as a preventable health crisis.

Congressman Mike Quigley, (D-Ill.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, has introduced the Public Health Violence Prevention Act (H.R. 2757).

This bill would allocate $1 billion for the establishment of the National Center for Violence Prevention (NCVP) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provide funding for scaling up prevention efforts across the country.

If the bill is approved, the NCVP would build upon ongoing efforts while creating new programs. According to Quigley’s press release, this would include the Public Health Violence Prevention Program (PHVP), “aimed at deploying health-focused responses to violence and the prevention of violence across all sectors.”

 

Violence claims nearly 60,000 lives every year in the United States. According to the CDC’s Fatal Injury Reports, violence is the leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 and it is among the top five causes of death for everyone between the ages of 1 and 44.

Beyond the direct loss of life, injuries, and years of life lost, violence also follows patterns that mirror other major health issues; the more someone is exposed to any form of violence, the greater likelihood they have of being involved in violence. 

The associated trauma results in negative health outcomes and is the largest of all health inequities.

The Public Health Violence Prevention Act is driven by the urgent and straightforward understanding that violence is preventable and that violence begets violence.

Broadly described, direct health-based prevention strategies, such as Cure Violence and programs associated with the National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs, work with victims of violence, their families, and CONTINUE READING

CREDIT: THE HILL