Understanding the Community Experience of Firearm Violence in the Deep South: A Needs Assessment

Severance, A., Karimi, M., Seidfaraji, L., Dehon, E., Vearrier, L., Womack, F., Zhang, L., Kutcher, M., Lumumba, R., & Morris, M. (2025), Understanding the Community Experience of Firearm Violence in the Deep South: A Needs Assessment, Journal of American College of Surgeons, https://doi.org/10.1097/xcs.0000000000001650

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) exist in an ecosystem including community-based organizations as well as individual members of the communities they serve. As a part of a community participatory design process aimed at creating an HVIP in Jackson, MS, a survey was distributed to assess exposure to guns and violence, risk factors for firearm injury, and recovery needs of survivors.

STUDY DESIGN:
A REDCap-based survey was distributed to known community stakeholder e-mail lists and via direct communication with patients admitted after incidents of firearm violence between January 2024 and May 2024.

RESULTS:
Ninety-three respondents completed surveys, including 21 survivors. Participants were an average of 38 years old; 92% were Black, and 60% were women. Fifty percent were college educated and 47% had an income below the state median. Exposure to firearms was common, with 36% reporting a gun in the home, 88% reporting hearing gunshots within the last 3 months, and 87% reporting having a family member shot or killed by a gun. Respondents identified mental health treatment services, legal advocacy, and health insurance as the most important needs of survivors. Of the 24% of participants who had personally experienced a firearm injury, 50% reported their injuries were hard to deal with emotionally and only 43% felt that the care they received in the hospital was good.

CONCLUSIONS:
This survey highlights local needs that will shape the design of an HVIP. Integrating community feedback into the creation and provision of HVIPs and their services is key to maintaining responsiveness to community-articulated needs.