Advancing violence and injury prevention
Violence and injuries are widespread in society, killing millions of people a year, injuring many more and having significant impacts on the well-being of individuals and communities.
A range of expertise related to understanding, responding to, and preventing violence and injuries exists across the UW, yet faculty, students and staff are not yet fully harnessing the total breadth of the university’s capabilities in this space.
The initiative is working with internal stakeholders to help raise the level of understanding of the university’s capacities, create new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and help efforts to secure new funding for this traditionally difficult to support area.
Current activities in this area include:
Undergraduate course
Expertise from different disciplines – such as medicine, public health, sociology, public policy and law – is required to effectively understand the causes of violence and its broader effects on individuals and society.
To that end, the initiative offered a one-credit General Studies course for undergraduates during fall quarter 2020 to raise broad awareness of the multi-level, cross-sector coordination and input needed to understand, respond to and prevent acts of violence.
HIPRC pilot program
The initiative supported the launch of the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center’s new pilot grant program for faculty, which launched in spring quarter 2020.
The primary objective of this pilot project grant program is to develop connections with community partners and encourage the development of new injury and violence prevention and care research projects.
Funded pilot research grants
The initiative has funded several pilot research grants that support violence and injury prevention-related research projects. These include:
- Developing a lethal means assessment in psychiatric emergency services for suicide prevention
- Using digital learning tools to enhance emotional regulation for youth hospitalized for aggressive crises
- Piloting a low-cost, self-sustaining model of a faith-based intervention that can address the psychological wounds of trauma and promote community reconciliation
- Ensuring equal access to trauma care in Washington State through system modeling
