911 is the gateway to ambulances and emergency medical care, fire and rescue and police. For too many of us, 911 is a gateway to greater trauma, not resolution. And while policing is very much in the headlines, steering more calls to healthcare providers isn’t the answer. Communities harmed by policing are also harmed by institutional healthcare.
There are other ways to respond.
Dr. LJ Punch is a nationally known trauma surgeon working with community leaders to heal the trauma of violence and the systemic responses to those injuries. Dr. Punch is the founder of St. Louis’s BRIC (Bullet Related Injury Clinic) and The T community health education and resource center in St. Louis.
Dr. Rebecca Neusteter is Executive Director of University of Chicago’s Health Lab and Director of Transform911, a national campaign to reshape the 911 system.
Together, they pull back the curtain on a system that too often undermines the wellbeing of responders, telecommunicators and people facing emergencies to illuminate what a wellbeing-oriented emergency response system might look like.
Notes, downloads and resources:
Policymakers, funders and organizations focus on survivors' safety to evaluate the effectiveness of domestic violence programs. We asked survivors how they define success and found a different answer.
After 15+ years moving the US toward a country where everyone has a fair shot at wellbeing, the Full Frame Initiative has made the careful decision to wind down as an organization. Read the letter from FFI’s Founder & CEO Katya Fels Smyth about the decision to intentionally close in a way that reflects our values and minimizes risk of harm to our partners and communities. We are committed to ensuring the work takes on new life beyond our organization’s boundaries.
The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) interviewed Tanya Tucker, chief of national partnerships and outreach at the Full Frame Initiative, to understand how a focus on wellbeing can help transform patient care.