News & Events: Violence Prevention

Like all hospital case managers,  Mike Texada works very closely with his clients. That's why his office at Zuckerman San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) is right behind the hospital's emergency room. Texada is a case manager for the Wraparound Project, a violence intervention program based at the hospital. The beeper of the caseworker on duty goes off when someone who has been violently assaulted comes into the ER.  "Victims of violence, if they survive, are at increased risk of becoming victims again," said Texada. "So, we try to turn their hospital stay into a [...]

Delvecchio Finley, MPP, CEO of the Alameda Health System, visionary leader and agent of change in public health care, and Gregory P. Victorino, M.D., professor of surgery and director of Trauma Services at Highland Hospital, have written an insightful Op-Ed exposing one of the vastly under-appreciated consequences of easy access to guns, namely the lack of heath equity or "the ability to attain one's full health potential". This condition is manifest in low-income and impoverished communities disproportionately affected by gun violence. Fortunately, Alameda Health System has established a [...]

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the debut of the Wraparound mural, a profound expression of art and healing that proudly hangs on a wall near the Wraparound Project offices at ZSFG. The mural is the creation of Marco Razo, a noted artist, who first learned of the Wraparound Project after he lost a family member to violence in 2016. The core mission of the Wraparound Project is the prevention of violence thorough culturally sensitive community interventions and support of its victims through proactive outreach, empathy and emotional [...]

The San Francisco Wraparound Project, led by Catherine Juillard, MD, MPH, was recently featured on BBC's World hacks – a program which explores innovative ways to solve the world's problems. The moving documentary highlights some of the achievements of the Wraparound Project as well as one of its core components – using the period immediately following injury as a teachable moment, a golden opportunity to provide transformative interventions to victims of violent injury. Darius, a former Wraparound client, takes viewers on a journey through the neighborhood where he was shot and the hospital [...]

The New York Times reports on the UCSF Trauma Recovery Center (TRC), a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals that helps trauma victims "surmount the psychic hurdle between 'victim' and 'survivor'. For survivors of violent injury, the psychological effects often outlast the physical damage. Mental health issues like PTSD, anxiety, and depression can be significant barriers to recovery from traumatic injury. Moreover, the fear of the stigma sometimes associated with seeking out mental health treatment makes treatment even more difficult.  Partnering with TRC, the San Francisco [...]

SF Wraparound Director, Dr. Rochelle Dicker provides insight into the growth of hospital intervention programs for patients who are injured as a result of violence.  The following Washington Post article reports that patients with gunshot or stab wounds are more likely to be re-injured, especially if their circumstances do not change after injury. In addition to being more likely to face issues of domestic violence, mental illness, and substance abuse, a lack of stable housing and poverty are stressors that can result in health problems. Research finds that the need for intervention is [...]

Dan Flanagan, Executive Director of Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), writing in the December, 2014 issue, of "Tree Scapes", the organization's newsletter, talks about the recent successes of Junior and Orlando, young survivors of violence who came to FUF by way of the San Francisco Wraparound Project: Meet Junior and Orlando, young men who have become beloved and hard-working members of our team since they joined us this summer. They came to us through the San Francisco Wraparound Project, a program based at San Francisco General Hospital that helps young survivors of violence to change [...]

KPIX 5 (CBS/San Francisco) honored Rochelle Dicker, M.D., a trauma surgeon at SFGH, with its Jefferson Award for her work in stemming the epidemic of violent injuries at San Francisco General Hospital through the San Francisco Wraparound Project which she is Director of: San Francisco General Hospital said a third of the shooting, stabbing and beating victims it treats return to the emergency room, injured from yet another crime. But one doctor has come up with a way to stop the revolving door of violence. This week's Jefferson Award winner said there is a teachable moment when a badly [...]

NBC Latino reports on the work of San Francisco General Hospital's violence-intervention program, The San Francisco Wraparound Project: Javier Antezana is one of the first people to approach a patient's bedside when doctors rush a gunshot victim to the emergency room but he's no surgeon. As a case manager for the San Francisco General Hospital's violence-intervention program, his job is to think past the hospital stay, to the critical 24-48 hour window when the victim is most likely to retaliate. "I tell them 'You don't have to prove yourself to your gang, to your community to anybody,'" [...]

KPIX 5 (Oakland KCBS) reports on the prevalence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among young gunshot victims, a phenomenon typically linked to soldiers of war:  After Emergency Room doctors patch up a young gunshot victim, the patient is given time to recover from the physical wound. While time may heal, there is still the mental wound that lingers according to Anne Marks, the executive director of Oakland-based Youth Alive—an urban violence prevention organization. Many young gunshot victims are experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), something that was initially [...]

Missionlocal.org reports on a story entitled "The Gang War That Wasn't" in which representatives of the San Francisco Wraparound Project played a critical role in averting violence after angry members of rival gangs converged on SFGH's Emergency Room. Did the Mission avert a gang war? At a community meeting last week at Mission Police Station, Capt. Greg Corrales for the first time offered details on the fatal shooting of Aldo "Trigger" Troncoso - the neighborhood's first homicide of the year - and the aftermath. Stories of violence averted are not often told, but that's the story Corrales [...]

Dr. Rochelle Dicker received the 2010 Chancellor's Award for Public Service in the faculty/academic category.  The award was recognition of her work as Director and Founder of the Wraparound Project for Comprehensive Rehabilitation, an outstanding violence prevention program that has developed a new approach to the care of the violently injured by instituting a program, based on the public health model of injury prevention, to reduce injury recidivism.  

A note written to the Director of Wraparound concerning Case Managers by social worker, Amy Furr: "I am one of the night shift ED social workers and I had to take a minute this morning to tell you how amazing Javier and Ricardo were last night. As I am sure you heard, or will hear, there were two shootings last night, two people were killed and one man is on 4E with an unsurvivable injury. Given all of the events last night, there was no way I could have provided support to all of the families that were grieving and needing to see their loved ones. Javier and Ricardo both stayed at the [...]