Emergency physicians discover firsthand early in their residencies how violence and trauma is a recurrent problem in the United States. For Dr. Rob Gore, as a young, African-American resident, witnessing this cycle of violence became personal. In his residency, Dr. Gore was surprised by how most of the patients he was caring for with injuries from violence were all a similar age to himself, all the same ethnicity as his own, and all from the same neighborhoods in which he lived.  Frustrated with these realities of his work, Dr. Gore started to look at violence and trauma from a public health standpoint. He thought that if interventions were made after incidences of violence, that we may be able to break the cycle of violence. With this in mind, Dr. Gore founded the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI), an organization that provides youth with safe alternatives to violence through interventions in schools, communities and hospitals in Brooklyn, New York. In the emergency department setting, KAVI works with young people who have been shot or stabbed with the goal of making sure they do not come back with a repeated injury. This trauma informed model of care makes sure that victims of violence are safe, emotionally supported, have resources in place to help them deal with the process of trauma and heal, and cope with any losses they have experienced. Recognizing that most hospital systems do not have a program like KAVI in place, in his FIX talk, Dr. Gore offers some suggestions on how all emergency physicians can care for victims of violence with the goal of violence prevention.

More information about KAVI can be found on their site — http://kavibrooklyn.org

Watch the full FIX17 talk below!