MUSKEGON, Mich. — A new effort to stop youth violence before it starts is underway at Trinity Health Muskegon Hospital. The program, "SafERTeens" is the brainchild of the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
Dr. Brian Stork, a urologist, noticed he was getting a lot of calls to Trinity Health Hospital in Muskegon to consult for gun violence victims.
“There were so many people with gun violence injuries. I felt like we had to do something,” Dr. Stork said.
So, Dr. Stork started to do research. With the help of colleagues, the data on violence in Muskegon was astonishing.
Young Black men received the majority of firearm injuries in the area, according to their research, with nearly 70% of those injuries involving attempted murder or bodily harm. 25% of the injuries were self-inflicted or accidental.
The preventable problem, Dr. Stork points out, is also costly.
“We did a study. We tried to prove that the hospital was losing money on the care of gun violence injuries, because we thought if we could show that and how much Medicaid was spending on these injuries, we might be able to get some community support, beyond just the trauma that it’s causing the patients and communities,” Dr. Stork said. “We found that Medicaid spent over a million dollars a year here in Muskegon, covering gun violence injuries."
Dr. Stork's research, which studied gun violence in Muskegon from 2015 to 2019, caught the attention of the hospital's injury prevention coordinator, Holly Alway.
“Muskegon is not immune to firearms-related injuries,” Injury Prevention Coordinator for Trinity Health Muskegon Holly Alway said.
That's where "SafERTeens" comes in. The violence reduction program screens every young person at the hospital. It's proven to work just a year after implementation.
“We know firearm injuries and fatalities now outpace motor vehicle crash fatalities, which is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, so just as we have traffic safety programs and passenger safety programs, we need to have firearms injury prevention programs,” Alway said.
SafERTeens starts with three simple questions for a screening process. Those who are flagged then have a one-on-one conversation with an interventionist. From there, community resources and alternatives are prevented to hopefully stop violence before it starts.
SafERTeens was first implemented in May of 2023, and tangible results are expected by May 2024.
Check out our list of community resources available to help in West Michigan.