Preventing Firearm Injuries and Deaths among Clients: An Action Plan Model for Social Workers.

Social workers are uniquely positioned to support clients in crisis to reduce firearm access. However, many report needing support in navigating conversations and awareness of available options. Authors sought to understand the decision-making process social workers use, to choose which interventions (e.

Firearm Experiences, Behaviors, and Norms Among Rural Adolescents.

Importance: Rural adolescents are at high risk for firearm-related injury, yet most existing prevention efforts are informed by research conducted in urban areas. Despite the need to account for rural perspectives, few studies have investigated the unique social ecological context of firearms for rural adolescents or have directly engaged with rural adolescents to understand their views on firearm use.

Objective: To describe rural adolescents' firearm behaviors and perceptions of firearm-related social norms within their communities, peer groups, and families.

Conceptualization of Firearm-Related Terms Among Rural Adolescents: Definitions Matter.

Rural adolescents are at risk for firearm-related injury and death. In response, professional organizations have called for communication between adolescents, parents, and providers about firearms. A shared understanding of firearms between providers and families can facilitate effectiveness of health interventions.

A multi-state evaluation of extreme risk protection orders: a research protocol.

Background: Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) are civil court orders that prohibit firearm purchase and possession when someone is behaving dangerously and is at risk of harming themselves and/or others. As of June 2024, ERPOs are available in 21 states and the District of Columbia to prevent firearm violence. This paper describes the design and protocol of a six-state study of ERPO use.

Improving post-injury follow-up survey response: incorporating automated modalities.

Background: Incorporating post-discharge data into trauma registries would allow for better research on patient outcomes, including disparities in outcomes. This pilot study tested a follow-up data collection process to be incorporated into existing trauma care systems, prioritizing low-cost automated response modalities.

Methods: This investigation was part of a larger study that consisted of two protocols with two distinct cohorts of participants who experienced traumatic injury.

Confounder selection in firearm policy research: A scoping review.

Legislative firearm policies are often proposed as a way of preventing firearm-related harm. Confounding is a substantial threat to accurately estimating the causal effects of firearm policies. This scoping review characterizes selection of potential confounders in US firearm policy evaluations in the health sciences literature.

No change in substance use disorders or overdose after implementation of state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

Background: Inadequate income is associated with higher likelihood of experiencing a substance use disorder (SUD). This study tests whether the earned income tax credit (EITC), which issues supplemental income for workers with children in the U.S.

Improving Post-Injury Follow-up Survey Response: Incorporating Automated Modalities.

Background: Incorporating post-discharge data into trauma registries would allow for better research on patient outcomes, including disparities in outcomes. This pilot study tested a follow-up data collection process to be incorporated into existing trauma care systems, prioritizing low-cost automated response modalities.

Methods: This investigation was part of a larger study that consisted of two protocols with two distinct cohorts of participants who experienced traumatic injury.

Excess Child Mortality Associated With Colombia's Armed Conflict, 1998-2019.

Importance: Armed conflicts are directly and indirectly associated with morbidity and mortality due to destruction of health infrastructure and diversion of resources, forced displacement, environmental damage, and erosion of social and economic security. Colombia's conflict began in the 1940s and has been uniquely long-lasting and geographically dynamic.

Objective: To estimate the proportion of infant and child mortality associated with armed conflict exposure from 1998 to 2019 in Colombia.

Measuring interpersonal firearm violence: natural language processing methods to address limitations in criminal charge data.

Objective: Firearm violence constitutes a public health crisis in the United States, but comprehensive data infrastructure is lacking to study this problem. To address this challenge, we used natural language processing (NLP) to classify court record documents from alleged violent crimes as firearm-related or non-firearm-related.

Materials And Methods: We accessed and digitized court records from the state of Washington (n = 1472).

Reporting and Description of Research Methodology in Studies Estimating Effects of Firearm Policies.

Background: Evidence about which firearm policies work, to what extent, and for whom is hotly debated, perhaps partly because variation in research methodology has produced mixed and inconclusive effect estimates. We conducted a scoping review of firearm policy research in the health sciences in the United States, focusing on methodological considerations for causal inference.

Methods: We identified original, empirical articles indexed in PubMed from 1 January 2000 to 1 September 2021 that examined any of 18 prespecified firearm policies.

Identifying Common Data Elements to Achieve Injury-related Health Equity Across the Lifespan: A Consensus-Driven Approach.

Background: Limited availability and poor quality of data in medical records and trauma registries impede progress to achieve injury-related health equity across the lifespan.

Methods: We used a Nominal Group Technique (NGT) in-person workgroup and a national web-based Delphi process to identify common data elements (CDE) that should be collected.

Results: The 12 participants in the NGT workgroup and 23 participants in the national Delphi process identified 10 equity-related CDE and guiding lessons for research on collection of these data.

Cohort Study of Downgraded Misdemeanor Convictions and Subsequent Violent Crime: Differences by Defendant Race and Ethnicity.

Introduction: Criminal convictions may be imperfect markers of criminalized behavior, in part because of criminal legal system processes (e.g., plea bargaining).

Codeveloping theories of change for improved community-based violence intervention evaluation.

Background: Community-based violence intervention (CVI) programs are considered important strategies for preventing community violence and promoting health and safety. Mixed and inconclusive results from some prior CVI evaluations, as well as our general lack of understanding about the reasons for such varied findings, may be explained in part by misalignment of program theories of change and evaluation measures. Furthermore, most prior evaluations have focused solely on deficit-based outcomes; this narrow focus is inconsistent with the premise of CVI and may fail to capture improvements in health and well-being that are on the hypothesized pathway from intervention to violence reduction.

Association of Client and Provider Race with Approaches Pursued by Social Workers for Reducing Firearm Access.

Social workers assess and intervene to prevent harm among clients at risk of harm to self (HTS) and harm to others (HTO) with a firearm. This study sought to assess the impact of client race on social workers' approaches to reduce firearm access when they weighed voluntary (e.g.

Threats, Violence, and Weapon Use Against Children in Domestic Violence Protection Orders.

Background And Objectives: Childhood exposure to domestic violence is common, but the overlap between threats and violence against children and weapon/firearm use has not been well studied. The objectives of this study were to: assess differences in respondent firearm access and the use of weapons in granted domestic violence protection orders (DVPOs) with and without minors (individuals <18 years of age); and characterize the frequency and characteristics of threats and acts of violence against minors.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of a random sample of granted DVPOs from 2014-2020 in King County, Washington.

Strategies for recruiting adolescents in rural areas in firearm injury research.

Background: Participant recruitment is a central aspect of human sciences research. Barriers to participant recruitment can be categorised into participant, recruiter and institutional factors. Firearm injury research poses unique barriers to recruitment.

Research needs related to firearm rights restoration.

Background: In the USA, firearms are commonly involved in many incidents of serious interpersonal harm. Federal law prohibits the purchase and possession of firearms by certain high-risk groups including those with prior felony or domestic violence misdemeanor convictions. Evidence supports the effectiveness of these prohibitions, but little is known about how often prohibited persons later seek to have their firearm rights restored.

Integration of extreme risk protection orders into the clinical workflow: Qualitative comparison of clinician perspectives.

Extreme risk protection orders (ERPO) seek to temporarily reduce access to firearms for individuals at imminent risk of harming themselves and/or others. Clinicians, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and social workers regularly assess circumstances related to patients' risk of firearm-related harm in the context of providing routine and acute clinical care. While clinicians cannot independently file ERPOs in most states, they can counsel patients or contact law enforcement about filing ERPOs.