Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Vice President for Health Sciences Dean at the University at Buffalo's Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences stands in support of the Surgeon General's decision on Tuesday to declare gun violence an urgent public health emergency.
"I applaud the Surgeon General's statement," said Dr. Allison Brashear in an interview with WBEN. "Physicians such as myself, and education leaders, researchers, and hospital, individuals, administrators, doctors, nurses, we've all been concerned about gun violence for years. I applaud that this is now coming top of mind and is incredibly important across all areas."
Brashear says Buffalo has been among those dealing with gun violence, especially affecting children.
"We put all this effort into infectious disease, and now we have gun violence being the leading cause of death of children and adolescents," Brashear said.
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Brashear says UB has developed some programs of education and advocacy, including an elective on trauma informed care that addresses gun violence. UB has also worked with other schools of medicine around the country.
"We actually sent students to Michigan State this past February, and we have been working with other schools of medicine across the country to really draw attention to the epidemic of gun violence, and then training our students and our physicians and residents on how you can identify problems ahead of time, how you can educate your patients, and how you can really frame this as a public health crisis," Brashear noted.
Brashear says people affected by gun violence are adversely affected mentally, as well as physically.
"54% of adults say that they have a family member or they have experienced gun violence. So this leaves a wake of tragedy that we need to address in our healthcare systems, people who've not only been physically injured by guns, but people who've been mentally traumatized by some impact," Brashear detailed.
She adds doctors have been addressing this for some time.
"Pediatricians, for example, have been talking about gun safety as part of their, their well child visits," Brashear said.
Brashear says UB has hosted symposiums on gun violence, with medical professionals and trainees talking about how they could impact what has become "an awful crisis."
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