Loma Linda University Health has received a California state grant of $4,731,384 to provide violence intervention and prevention in the nearby city of San Bernardino and surrounding regions.
Funds will continue the LLUH Hospital-based Violence Intervention and Prevention Program (HB-VIP), which helps patients and families of those who sustain a violent injury, such as injury from gunshots or stabbings, modify circumstances and address social needs that can help break the cycle of violence. The program uses a multidisciplinary approach with Community Health Workers specialized in violence intervention and prevention and trusted community-based partners to provide safety planning, services, and trauma-informed care to violently injured people.
The program builds on the existing LLU HB-VIP, which has served over 1,500 patients over the last three years. Over the next three years, the program will focus on addressing the key areas of need in this patient population. The grant will help expand the HB-VIP and provide new services to address unemployment and mental health, which are significant individual and societal risk factors for violent injury. Specifics include workforce readiness seminars with job interview coaching and job referral pathways, as well as counseling services and transportation or meal voucher needs as they arise. A tattoo removal clinic is also a key part of workforce readiness and the only service of its kind in the Inland Empire.
“This program really helps address a person’s social needs, helping to break the cycle of violence in our region,” said Tandis Soltani, MD, the grant’s Principal Investigator, Associate Trauma Medical Director for Prehospital Care and Injury Prevention, and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
The grant, from the Board of State and Community Corrections, is a continuation of a grant originally received for the initiative in 2022 under the leadership of Sigrid Burruss, MD. This new grant will be issued over three years under Soltani’s leadership.
In 2011, San Bernardino was identified as the second-poorest large city in the nation, with 34.6% of people living in poverty. Residents of the region face numerous challenges, including high crime rate, gangs, poverty, and lack of family-sustaining wage jobs — all of which are primary factors that contribute to the high violence rate in the city.
LLUH’s Trauma Center has been working with San Bernardino in the city’s Violence Intervention Program since 2020. A similar program helped a Northern California hospital reduce recidivism of trauma injuries by 75%, the previous grant stated.