"Trauma centers are well equipped to deal with blood loss [and] tissue destruction," says Dr. Carnell Cooper, "but they are not routinely able to deal with the social ills that put patients at risk for being repeat victims of violence." An attending surgeon at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Cooper has treated patients who have been stabbed multiple times, only to see them return in a matter of months with gunshot wounds.

In order to break such a discouraging cycle, Dr. Cooper established the Violence Prevention Program (VPP). The program defines its mission as preventing "violent personal injury among Baltimore City’s most at-risk populations through research into the root causes of violence," and developing evidence-based methods for targeting those causes. Instead of waiting in the operating room for patients returning with knife or gunshot wounds, Dr. Cooper has rallied a research team, an intervention staff, community collaborators, and the Shock Trauma Center in Maryland to prevent street violence before it occurs.

The Violence Prevention Program addresses the causes of urban street violence on several fronts. The Violence Intervention Project – one of the program’s main components – engages individuals at a point of personal crisis and offers constructive coping techniques to resolve problems, laying the foundation for an ongoing supportive relationship between the individual and VPP staff. Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where Dr. Cooper also teaches, found, after a comprehensive case study, that individuals who participated in the Violence Intervention Program were three times less likely to be arrested for a subsequent violent crime. Promoting Healthy Alternatives for Teens, another important VPP component, fosters healthy problem-solving skills among young people and their families, so that all are able to cope with difficult personal issues, before they become crises, without having to resort to violence.

Dr. Cooper's vision is that this program will ultimately not merely reduce the incidence of patients returning to the Shock Trauma Center with violent injuries, but also enhance the quality of life for all in the community. Striving towards Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "beloved community" of peace and social justice, he believes that preventing our young people from trying to harm each other is not an end, but only a beginning. "All other methods have failed," Dr. King said. "Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point."

To learn more about Dr. Carnell Cooper and his cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit: http://www.umm.edu/shocktrauma/vip.htm

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