Gun Shops Work With Doctors To Prevent Suicide By Firearm

A policy adopted in Eugene’s 4J School District has been creating safe spaces for transgender students from kindergarten through high school. Gender-inclusive programs at the University of Oregon have marked the school as a national leader in LGBTQ acceptance.

Across the country, hospitals are embracing intensive intervention programs to help victims of violence — including those who have criminal histories — after they have been brought in for treatment of injuries. Such programs can help prevent retaliation, reduce the chance a patient will be violently injured again, and put people on track for success.

The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence in Quebec has expanded rapidly, becoming a model for programs around the world. What sets it apart from projects in Europe and the United States is that it confronts extremism of all stripes — not just Islamist — and focuses on behavior that signals the risk of violence, not just radical ideas, only involving law enforcement as a last resort.

Firefighters working the frontlines of California fires now have emotional supports at their base camps to help them process the toll of their work. Supports include chaplains, peer-to-peer interaction, and therapy dogs.

Connecting LGTBQ+ teens with peers and adults for support can help reduce depression and the risk of suicide. Organizations like the Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center in Durango, Colorado, and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at Fort Lewis College provide safe spaces where youth feel welcome and supported by a network of peers and adults. The centers also act as social spaces where youth, parents, and their communities can come together.

In Mancos, Colorado, the school board voted “no” to arming school staff in the traditionally Western town. Across the United States, the question of arming teachers is being brought up as a response to the increase in school shootings. The policy is highly contested, with some saying it provides students with a feeling of safety, but others saying the risks associated are too high. For the Mancos community, such a vote is a surprise given the town’s gun-friendly history, but is explained by the increase in new residents.

Medical professionals throughout the United States are starting to implement mental health screenings during routine care in order to better assess those at risk of suicide. Using a combination of health records and questionnaires to flag which patients should have continued follow-ups, clinics and primary care specialists prioritization of suicide intervention is already showing significant results.

Crime-tracking mobile apps give millions of Brazilians crowdsourced data on urban violence, alerting people to dangerous places and filling gaps in government data on shootings, robberies, and other risks. But apps such as Fogo Cruzado (“Crossfire”) and Onde Tem Tiroteio (“Where There's a Shooting”) offer statistically crude glimpses of crime, distorted by media and racial biases that one expert blames for myths about the risks people actually face.

The Save the Boys Initiative provides counseling, group and family therapy, programming around mentorship and leadership, and other forms of assistance for boys who have experienced sexual abuse.

The Mental Health Intervention Team at Salina Public Schools makes mental health care more accessible by using grant money to hire school liaisons to assist and provide mental health services to students at school. Within the 2022-2023 academic year alone, 635 students were served and 76% of them improved their school attendance, while 65% saw improvement in their academic performance.