With backing from a Parkland survivor, Travis County begins hospital-based gun violence prevention program

Back in 2022, the Travis County Commissioners Court passed the Safer Travis County resolution, aimed at reducing gun violence, at the time – and still – the leading cause of non-accidental death in the county. The resolution included two pilot programs, each costing $500,000 and funded by Local Fiscal Recovery Plan dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act for Covid relief. One was a prosecutor-led gun violence intervention program, to offer perpetrators support services to discourage repeat offenses; the other, a hospital-based violence intervention program to prevent victims from retaliating and perpetuating the cycle of violence. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, commissioners unanimously approved a contract with Ascension Seton to pilot that second program. 

According to the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention, the victims of interpersonal violence are at a higher risk of being re-injured or retaliating violently themselves. These intervention programs have been shown to significantly reduce those risks: In a 2022 impact report surveying 94 hospitals that implemented them, HAVI found that participants in Oakland, California, were 70 percent less likely to be arrested again and 60 percent less likely to have future criminal involvement.

“These programs are some of the best at reducing that retaliation on the spot, when they are able to meet those families in the hospitals, console them, support them, and get them the resources they need, so that they don’t go out and retaliate,” said David Hogg, a student survivor of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, who now advocates for prevention and came to speak to commissioners on Tuesday. “These programs … not only save lives, they can save a lot of money at the same time. My metaphor is, would you rather have a polio vaccine or a bunch of iron lungs? If we can help stop shootings before they happen, we can save law enforcement lives, civilian lives, and millions of dollars not incarcerating people.”

The program will be implemented at Dell Seton Medical Center and Dell Children’s Medical Center, and will focus on providing medical and mental health care to people in the hospital with a gun violence-related injury and their families. Those with a scope of injuries including assault, stabbing and gun violence are eligible for the program, and Travis County Health and Human Services aims to create a comprehensive care plan to reduce the likelihood of revictimization or retaliation. Essentially, explained Alice Navarro, senior planner with HHS, this is a “trauma-informed case management approach, (which will) include referrals to appropriate community resources based on a social determinants of health assessment. We’ll also strengthen relationships with public safety entities, social service agencies and community-based organizations that deal specifically with issues related to community violence.”

One such community organization is Jail to Jobs, which helps connect youth with criminal records to employment, and offers counseling, mentoring and training, as well as street outreach to youth most at risk of violence. Eddie Franz, executive director of Jail to Jobs, told commissioners that this program will help plug gaps in what organizations like his can do. “There’s a lot of times where something horrendous happens and the victims and families find themselves in a hospital after a shooting, and we don’t have access there. Having an HBIT Program that communicates with street outreach teams and violence interrupters sews that hole up.”

“When we started this conversation three years ago, gun violence was at its height in this community and our gun violence prevention ecosystem was at a fledgling stage,” said District Attorney José Garza. “In the three years since then, we as a community have dramatically strengthened and built out our gun violence prevention ecosystem, and gun violence has decreased steadily over that same period.” Garza also updated the court on the other part of the Safer Travis County resolution – the prosecutor-led gun violence prevention program. His office is in the process of awarding a contract for a vendor to implement that program, which will come to the court soon for approval.

“It’s absolutely imperative that this program exists, because it’s in a person’s worst moment … that sometimes the decision to retaliate is made,” said Franz. “A lot of times, once that decision is made, it is very hard to turn them away from that action. And with one shooting, another one happens, and then another one, and then another one, and it goes back and forth. We need to have somebody in that room that can offer a different pathway than violence – that can give their pain a healthy outlet.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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