VPA recommends in-hospital interventions to curb violence

CHAIRMAN of the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) Dr Elizabeth Ward is proposing in-hospital interventions as one of several strategies to prevent violence.

Dr Ward made the suggestions while revealing data on violence-related injuries recorded at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) for 2016 and 2017 at a peace-building action workshop held in Kingston recently.

“We should implement in-hospital interventions by stationing at least two social workers and a violence interrupter at the hospitals to prevent retaliation,” she recommended.

In addition, she also suggested therapeutic interventions for children with violent injuries.

Meanwhile, the medical epidemiologist revealed that fights and arguments accounted for the violence-related injuries reported at the KPH for 2016 and 2017. The data showed that 70 per cent of men who reported at the KPH for violence-related injuries were a result of fights and arguments in 2016. The figure climbed to 77 per cent in 2017.

The VPA chairman disclosed that 50 per cent of these fights and arguments for the men occurred in the streets in 2017. Meanwhile, for the women, 48 per cent of these fights/arguments took place at home.

She said when women were the victims, 49 per cent of perpetrators were acquaintances, while 31 per cent of the perpetrators were intimate partners.

The data for Kingston showed a similar trend to the findings for Clarendon, which were presented at the workshop held in Clarendon last month. Fights and arguments accounted for most of the violence-related injuries reported at the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon in 2016 and 2017, according to data made available by the May Pen Hospital.

The series of workshops, which are being funded by CSJP III, Ministry of National Security and the Department for International Development Caribbean, also saw presentations on data for the parish of Kingston and for two communities, Highlight View and Land Lease.