Summary: <p>In 2016, the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-calls-gun-violence-public-health-crisis">American Medical Association</a> declared that gun violence in the U.S. is a public health crisis. Not just the mass shootings which make national headlines, but the daily violence that constitute the overwhelming majority of gun deaths- suicide, intimate partner violence, murder, police killings and even accidental shootings. The ripple effects impacts all of us, even if we are not directly experiencing the violence ourselves.</p> <p>It's compounding another national crisis, that of adolescent mental health. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7108e2.htm#:~:text=During%20March%E2%80%93October%202020%2C%20among,compared%20with%202019%20(2)">The CDC estimated</a> that in 2020, the proportion of emergency room visits by adolescents seeking mental health care increased by 31 percent. But because of a lack of residential program beds, young patients are left to become <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/23/1005530668/kids-mental-health-crisis-suicide-teens-er-treatment-boarding">“boarders” in emergency departments</a>—kept in small, bare rooms or even in hospital hallways. </p> <p>We speak with Dr. Megan Ranney, Academic Dean at the School of Public Health and a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University, about how we got here and how a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/megan_ranney_how_the_public_health_approach_can_solve_gun_violence">public health perspective</a> on gun violence can help us find solutions.</p> <p> </p>
