Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2024 - 13

FIRST PERSON / ROUNDS
Saving our kids
3 ways hospitals can address the most
pressing public health crisis today.
BY MARC GORELICK, MD
G
un violence is a public health emergency. Recent studies
show it has become the leading cause of death for U.S.
youth-more than childhood cancer, drowning, and poisoning
combined. When I first saw those studies, I couldn't believe
what I was reading.
Everyone who cares for kids needs to be engaged in addressing
gun violence like never before because kids are dying like
never before. But how can children's hospitals and providers
address the crisis? Here are three simple approaches.
Incorporate proactive gun safety conversations into our
clinical care. The AAP and others endorse including gun safety
as an aspect of anticipatory guidance. This can include education
about safe storage practices, mental health screenings,
media habits, and asking about guns in the home and in the
places children visit and then providing evidence-based advice
about reducing risk factors.
Get directly involved. Pediatricians and children's health
systems can partner with others in their communities to implement
interventions, such as gun lock distribution, violence
interruption, and gun buy-back programs. When Children's
Minnesota hosted a community health fair including a gun
buy-back, we hoped to get 60 to 80 guns-we ended up with 119.
That's 119 fewer guns in our community, 119 fewer opportunities
for a child to be shot to death.
We also participate in a program to support victims of violence.
When a child or teen comes to one of our hospitals with
a gunshot wound, someone from the program's staff meets
with the family and connects them to resources and services
to help prevent re-injury. Programs like these have been shown
to reduce re-injury in kids who are violently assaulted.
Support legislation. The approach best supported by the evidence,
however, is legislation. Several studies have shown that
limiting access to guns leads to reduced rates of self-inflicted
firearm deaths and homicides. For example, states with more
and stronger firearm access and safety laws have lower rates
of firearm death than states with fewer and/or weaker laws.
Public health crisis
Gun violence causes more youth
deaths than cancer, drowning, and
poisoning combined.
Sources: Goldstick, Jason E., et al., " Current Causes
of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United
States, " NEJM: Vol. 386 No. 20, 2022; Web-Based
Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System
(WISQARS™), Centers for Disease Control.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Fall 2024
13
No. 1
cause of deaths
of children
At Children's Minnesota, we prioritize gun violence prevention
in our advocacy work with city and state officials. That
means submitting written and in-person testimony to legislative
committees. It means speaking out in blogs, public statements,
newspaper opinion pieces, and working with the news media
to get coverage on the effects gun violence has on our children.
It's also important that we come together as advocates for
children's health. We in health care share a unique perspective
on this public health crisis. At Children's Minnesota, we
have a front-row seat to how gun violence impacts children
and families and our communities at large, so we have joined
Hospitals United, a national coalition of hospitals working to
reduce gun injury and death in our kids.
Forging alliances, followed by concrete action, is important.
We are stronger together.
Marc Gorelick, MD, is president and CEO of Children's
Minnesota. His recently published book is " Saving Our Kids:
An ER Doc's Common-Sense Solution to the Gun Crisis. "
Have a strong opinion on a topic? Email communications@childrenshospitals.org.
24%
of all deaths among children
are caused by firearms
33,000
deaths of children aged
1-19 from 2012-2021
Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2024

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