Update Course Rewind: Firearm Advocacy as a Pediatric Surgeon 2022

For the first time in recorded history, firearm injuries in children have exceeded motor vehicle crashes. The deaths from suicide and homicide are both on the rise, particularly in the very young. And today, Dr. MaryAnn Henry is presenting what we can do as pediatric surgeons in terms of firearm advocacy. So, I'll start with a few questions to see about the engagement of our audience. Who's very engaged in gun violence advocacy? I would say I actually get really into advocacy right after a shooting and I'm really into it and then I usually fade back into whatever else is going on in the world that day. So, I'm probably not engaged enough. Especially for those who are not very engaged, but who are either very engaged after a shooting or sometimes engaged or not really engaged at all. How comfortable do you feel about this? That's what the next question is about. This is a major public health issue. There's no realm or one answer to solve this problem, and mental health is a major component of this. And so I think it's great if someone wants to advocate for better mental health resources, more pediatric mental health specialists, that is part of the answer. That's part of the problem and part of the answer. There are lots of reasons for gun violence and for firearm related injury in this country and we have to recognize the complexity of those problems and approach them with a complexity science and a multi-prong approach. Any single one thing isn't going to solve this problem. It requires neighborhood transformation, it requires mental health interventions, it requires availability of lock boxes and safety tools to prevent unintentional injury. Unless there is a higher incidence of mental health in the United States, why doesn't Jose ever see it? Is there more mental health problems in the United States compared to Chile? Probably not, it's probably equal everywhere. The only difference is maybe gun availability. So I think as pediatric surgeons, it is in our lane if we decided that we should be teaching this to take a stance one way or the other. Just one other dimension I want to add to that with suicide rates amongst our children is huge and the difference thinking about suicide if you've got a loaded gun at your head, the evidence shows very much if you can revisit that 20 minutes later and they haven't killed themselves then you can work through whatever that suicidal ideation was. So we do know that in patients with suicidal ideation, if there's a gun in the home, the risk of successfully committing suicide is at least three times if not more that they will be effective. The availability of guns is a major problem. One of the things we wanted to just briefly address today is different ways that pediatric surgeons can be involved in the different levels of advocacy. I would probably guess that everybody in the room, whether they're US or internationally based, is involved in patient-based advocacy, whether it's for this issue or not. But in terms of firearm violence, it's screening for risk factors. It's trauma informed care. So knowing, especially in communities where there's a lot of this that your patients and their families are impacted by trauma on a daily basis. And so that's working within your hospitals, within your trauma systems and working at your community and population-based levels. Advocacy really starts at the local level. So you can get involved by electing at your city or your state in this particular topic, knowing your own state laws. So if Law Center, you can look up your own state laws about guns and know where you stand. Also, learning your own state laws about other issues like Medicaid and access to care. The American Academy of Pediatrics has great resources on this. So I would say for any advocacy issue, knowing your own local issues are imperative first. Speak Now for Kids is a wonderful organization through the Children's Hospital Association that is a partnership to look at issues that affect our children and how we can be advocates for those issues. Likewise, First Focus is a bipartisan organization that looks at the legislation nationally that affects children and how it affects them. So, no matter what issue you want to undertake or be an advocate for, finding out how children will be affected because they don't have a voice. We have to be their voice. If you're interested in learning more, the AAP has fantastic resources for training and education. So, getting involved at the state level through your state chapter of the AAP or your state chapter of the ACS is a wonderful way to find out about the laws. Doctors for America is an organization that I'm very involved with and one of the great things that this has brought is I work very closely with other types of medical practitioners in this. So a lot of psychiatrists, OBGYNs, internists, so other perspectives on how gun violence is affecting patients and families. Then individual steps you can take. Thank you for watching this video. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on social media and download the State Current app for hundreds of pieces of content in pediatric surgery. Cincinnati Children's Hospital and State Current are sharing knowledge to improve child health around the globe.