(Press-News.org) (Boston)-- Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that participants who received care through BMC's Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP)--an interventional program targeting the physical, mental, emotional and social needs of violently injured youths—were less likely to retaliate for their injuries and experienced life changing behaviors through connections to caring, steady, supportive adults who helped them feel trust and hope. These findings are reported in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine.
Violence, particularly among persons younger than 24 years of age, is on the rise in the U.S. and is a public health problem. In 2011, emergency departments treated 707,212 patients aged 12-24 for violent injuries, compared to 668,133 in 2007. Most urban violence occurs in poor communities and young, African-American males are disproportionately affected. Up to 40 percent of injured African American youth who are less than 24 years old and hospitalized sustain subsequent injuries. One half of which return as victims of homicide.
In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 VIAP clients who were mostly male, African American and younger than 30, reflecting the typical VIAP clientele. Education level ranged from having some high school or GED to having some higher education. Most participants reported they had not suffered a prior violent injury before enrolling in VIAP. The interview consisted of open-ended questions structured around the following areas: life pre- and post-injury, hospital experience, VIAP experience, retaliation, and general questions relating to family/friend dynamics, accomplishments in life and goals. All interviews were coded, analyzed and the findings were organized into three main domains: challenges to physical and emotional healing, client experience with VIAP and effectiveness of VIAP.
The researchers identified the major challenges to physical and emotional healing were fear and safety, isolation as a coping mechanism, lack of trust, bitterness and symptoms of PTSD (intense fear, hypervigilance, estrangement from others, emotional detachment). Fears of going out of the house or being seen on the bus were limiting factors to moving forward. Participants felt unsociable and withdrawn, isolating themselves from friends and family. They described feeling unsafe anywhere in Boston.
Half of participants expressed feelings of distrust or apathy towards their violence intervention advocate (VIA) at first contact. As the relationship progressed, these participants described how their attitude towards their VIA changed. Many described feeling comfortable with their VIA after seeing how they genuinely cared. The other half trusted their VIA immediately. Eight described longer-term relationships that went beyond physical recovery. Almost all participants described comfort talking to their VIA while characterizing how the relationships evolved over time. Six mentioned aspects of "listening" or "understanding" in concurrence to describing the relationship progression.
Participants recounted a number of ways VIAs supported them post-injury including counseling and support, help with education, employment, and life skills. "Counseling and support was the most commonly cited service in our study," explained lead author Thea James, MD, founder and director of BMC's VIAP and an emergency room physician at BMC. "According to most participants, VIAs played a crucial role and filled a gap that is often missing from other service providers; connection to a caring and understanding adult that went beyond the scope of physical recovery from injury," added James an associate professor of emergency medicine at BUSM.
Half of participants expressed feelings of retaliation initially, but almost all chose not to retaliate since participating in VIAP for a variety of reasons including: faith in God, not wanting to hurt family, deciding it's not worth it, feeling grateful to be alive and talking to their VIA. According to James, talking to a caring adult who could relate was an overarching theme throughout the interviews. Improved confidence and desire to follow and accomplish goals were also commonly expressed among participants.
According to the researchers this study aimed to explore clients' experiences and provide a basis for understanding their perceptions of the effectiveness of VIAP. "Specifically, we sought to identify and contextualize VIAP's activities and the clients' unique life circumstances. Our findings suggest that our clients perceive the program as positive and effective. We have gained valuable information on their perceptions of the effectiveness of this emergency department (ED)-based violence intervention program that will help our VIAs to further support clients," said James. However, she believes future research is needed to identify best practices for ED-based violence intervention programs, like VIAP, and measure community wide efficacy in different settings.
INFORMATION:
Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-638-8480, gina.digravio@bmc.org
Clients of BMC's violence interventional advocacy program find experience supportive
2014-07-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
How children categorize living things
2014-07-22
How would a child respond to this question? Would his or her list be full of relatives, animals from movies and books, or perhaps neighborhood pets? Would the poppies blooming on the front steps make the list or the oak tree towering over the backyard?
How might the animals children name compare to those named by children raised in a different cultural or language background or in a community that offers more direct contact with the natural world?
In a study conducted by Andrea Taverna of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Formosa, Argentina) ...
Technique simplifies the creation of high-tech crystals
2014-07-22
Highly purified crystals that split light with uncanny precision are key parts of high-powered lenses, specialized optics and, potentially, computers that manipulate light instead of electricity. But producing these crystals by current techniques, such as etching them with a precise beam of electrons, is often extremely difficult and expensive.
Now, researchers at Princeton and Columbia universities have proposed a new method that could allow scientists to customize and grow these specialized materials, known as photonic crystals, with relative ease.
"Our results point ...
NASA's Aqua satellite gets infrared hint on Tropical Depression 2
2014-07-22
Infrared data gathered on the tropical low pressure area known as System 92L gave forecasters a hint that the low would become the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season's second tropical depression.
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over System 92L on July 21 at 11:53 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument gathered infrared data on the developing low pressure area. The infrared data shows temperature, and AIRS data showed some areas of very cold cloud top temperatures, exceeding the threshold of -63F/-52C that indicates cloud tops near the top of the troposphere. ...
NIST shows ultrasonically propelled nanorods spin dizzyingly fast
2014-07-22
Vibrate a solution of rod-shaped metal nanoparticles in water with ultrasound and they'll spin around their long axes like tiny drill bits. Why? No one yet knows exactly. But researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have clocked their speed—and it's fast. At up to 150,000 revolutions per minute, these nanomotors rotate 10 times faster than any nanoscale object submerged in liquid ever reported.
The discovery of this dizzying rate has opened up the possibility that they could be used not only for moving around inside the body—the impetus ...
Hubble traces the halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before
2014-07-22
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have probed the extreme outskirts of the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. The galaxy's halo of stars has been found to extend much further from the galaxy's centre than expected and the stars within this halo seem to be surprisingly rich in heavy elements. This is the most remote portion of an elliptical galaxy ever to have been explored.
There is more to a galaxy than first meets the eye. Extending far beyond the bright glow of a galaxy's centre, the swirling spiral arms, or the elliptical fuzz, is an extra ...
Room for improvement in elementary school children's lunches and snacks from home
2014-07-22
BOSTON -- Open a child's lunch box and you're likely to find that the lunches and snacks inside fall short of federal guidelines. Those are the findings of a study conducted by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. The findings are published online ahead of print in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Led by senior author Jeanne Goldberg, Ph.D., R.D., a professor at the Friedman School, the study is ...
Meerkats' sinister side is secret to their success, study shows
2014-07-22
The darker side of meerkats – which sees them prevent their daughters from breeding, and kill their grandchildren – is explained in a new study.
Research into the desert creatures – which live in groups with a dominant breeding pair and many adult helpers – shows that the alpha female can flourish when it maintains the sole right to breed.
The study shows how this way of life, also found in many animals such as ants and bees, can prove effective despite its sinister side.
Dominant meerkats control breeding within their group through violence, by banishing any other ...
NUS scientists use low cost technique to improve properties and functions of nanomaterials
2014-07-22
The challenges faced by researchers in modifying properties of nanomaterials for application in devices may be addressed by a simple technique, thanks to recent innovative studies conducted by scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Through the use of a simple, efficient and low cost technique involving a focused laser beam, two NUS research teams, led by Professor Sow Chorng Haur from the Department of Physics at the NUS Faculty of Science, demonstrated that the properties of two different types of materials can be controlled and modified, and consequently, ...
Children's impulsive behaviour is related to their brain connectivity
2014-07-22
Researchers from the University of Murcia have studied the changes in the brain that are associated with impulsiveness, a personality trait that causes difficulties in inhibiting a response in the face of a stimulus and leads to unplanned actions without considering the negative consequences. These patterns can serve as an indicator for predicting the risk of behavioural problems.
A new study headed by researchers from the University of Murcia analyses whether the connectivity of an infant's brain is related to children's impulsiveness.
"Impulsiveness is a risk factor ...
Rigid connections: Molecular basis of age-related memory loss explained
2014-07-22
From telephone numbers to foreign vocabulary, our brains hold a seemingly endless supply of information. However, as we are getting older, our ability to learn and remember new things declines. A team of scientists around Associate Prof Dr Antonio Del Sol Mesa from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine of the University of Luxembourg and Dr Ronald van Kesteren of the VU University Amsterdam have identified the molecular mechanisms of this cognitive decline using latest high-throughput proteomics and statistical methods. The results were published this week in the ...