Towards a Full Spectrum Violence Prevention and Intervention Program at Childrens Hospital Colorado

The overarching goal of the Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) initiative, entitled Comprehensive Hospital Based Adolescent Violence Assessment and Treatment Program (CHAVAT), is to decrease youth violence in a unique geographic area that serves both the largest (Denver) and 3rd largest (Aurora) cities in Colorado. Specific goals for the project include:

Building the infrastructure to establish a comprehensive hospital-based violence prevention and intervention program at Children’s Hospital Colorado;
Preventing youth violence perpetration for youth 10-17 years old identified as high risk who present to the Children’s Hospital Colorado through multiple health care settings
Decreasing re-injury for assault injured youth ages 10-17 presenting to CHCO Emergency Department;
Decreasing youth access to firearms in the intervention population with subsequent reduction in gun related injury and
Decreasing gang affiliation or gang joining in the high-risk population that will be engaged in the violence intervention program.

This project will serve a majority of underserved youth of color, as both the Adolescent Clinic and the Emergency Department have a patient mix of approximately 75% publicly insured patients who are 40% Hispanic, 30% Black, and 19% white.  Methods to achieve these goals will use secondary and tertiary prevention approaches. Youth will be identified as in need of services to prevent future violence perpetration by scoring positive on the Violence Injury Protection and Risk Screen when seen for routine care at the largest adolescent medicine clinic in the region, with an anticipated 160 youth eligible for services annually.  Second, youth presenting to the CHCO emergency department with assault injuries (300/year) will also be eligible for services.  The At Risk Intervention and Mentoring (AIM) program, a violence interruption, hospital-based violence intervention, will serve youth presenting with an assault injury. SafERteens PC, a motivational interviewing-based intervention will be provided for all youth in the program.  All youth will receive an assessment for services through the CHAVAT, assigned a care manager, and linked to evidence based services, such as Functional Family Therapy (FFT) or FFT-Gang Intervention, if deemed high.-risk.  Youth will be thoroughly screened for behavioral health issues and provided treatment through the management of adolescent medicine specialists (MDs).  All youth and families will be screened for access to firearms and provided safe storage devices if indicated.  Baseline and one-year follow-up measures will be collected from youth to track behavior change over time.