People at risk of or recovering from firearm injuries often interact with healthcare teams during critical moments—creating important opportunities for care, connection, and support.
Clinical and community-centered interventions can reduce the risk of firearm-related harm and strengthen safety when these moments are used effectively.
Explore each intervention to understand when it may be helpful, who is involved, and what it looks like in practice across healthcare and community settings.
Filter interventions by:
Firearm Injury Risk Screening
Brief, routine screening can help clinicians identify patients who may be at increased risk of firearm-related harm and guide appropriate follow-up supports. This includes tools such as the SaFETy Score (to identify youth at risk of future firearm injury) and the 5 L’s (a conversation guide focused on access and safety among older adults).
Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs)
HVIPs engage violently injured patients at the bedside and connect them with credible messengers and long-term case management to support recovery, reduce reinjury and retaliation, and strengthen community healing
Lethal Means Counseling
For patients at elevated suicide or violence risk, clinicians work collaboratively with individuals and their support systems to temporarily reduce access to firearms and other lethal means. This may include safety planning and use of tools like Lock to Live to support decision-making.
Medical-Legal Partnerships
Embedded legal professionals work alongside care teams to resolve housing, benefits, employment, and other legal needs that affect recovery—supporting patient stability, reducing stress during healing, and improving access to essential resources.
Safety Behaviors Counseling
Respectful, nonjudgemental conversations about firearm access and secure storage can reduce the risk of injury in the home. Counseling focuses on achievable safety steps and may be paired with providing storage devices to support behavior change.
Secure Firearm Storage
Clinicians can help patients and families choose secure storage options—such as locks, safes, or off-site storage—to reduce access during high-risk periods and prevent unintentional and self-directed firearm injury.
Trauma Recovery Centers
Trauma Recovery Centers provide accessible, trauma-informed mental health and support services to survivors of violent crime—improving healing, stability, and long-term well-being for individuals who often face barriers to care.