What is an HVIP?
Hospital-based Violence Intervention Program (HVIP) Fact Sheet
Adapted from the Health Alliance for Violence InterventionWhat is an HVIP?
HVIPs are multidisciplinary programs that combine the efforts of medical staff with trusted community-based partners to provide safety planning, services, and trauma-informed care to violently injured people. Engaging patients in the hospital is an important opportunity to improve their lives and reduce the likelihood of retaliation and/or re-injury. The support network continues once patients are released, with a pathway for outpatient care and other services. There is evidence that HVIPs can reduce repeat victimizations, reduce the likelihood of gang involvement, improve the overall quality of life, alleviate hospital debts, and decrease imprisonment rates among participants. 1
In line with the CDC’s Social Determinants of Health (i.e., that the conditions where people live, learn, work, and play affect their health outcomes), HVIPs are tailored to the communities they serve and participate in coordinated community responses to violence in order to improve the supply of services and the distribution of knowledge among providers. 2
How do HVIPs Work?
Instead of waiting for patients to seek care, HVIPs bring trauma-informed care to the patient while still in an emergency department or hospital setting. Trained Violence Intervention Specialists (VIS) with lived experience with interpersonal violence arrive at the hospital soon after injury to begin the intervention.
Because victims of interpersonal violence are at elevated risk for re-injury and violence perpetration, reaching them during these “teachable moments” is key to a successful intervention. Victims are linked to community-based services, mentoring, home visits, follow-up assistance, and long-term case management during these interventions. HVIPs also work to identify and reduce risk factors, such as substance misuse and chronic unemployment, and promote protective factors, such as social support, job readiness, and educational attainment.
What are the key components of HVIPs?
- Intervention: Begins with a brief intervention by a Violence Intervention Specialist (VIS) in the emergency department or at the hospital bedside
- Care: Continues with intensive, long-term community-based case management services in the months following the injury
- Follow-up: Crisis intervention, linkages to community-based services, mentoring, home visits, follow-up assistance, and long- term case management are provided
Project HEAL (Help, Empower, and Lead) is an HVIP established in 2021 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center (JSUMC) to serve victims of violence in Monmouth County, NJ.
1 Chong et al. (2015); Evans & Vega (2018); Monopoli et al (2018)
2 National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (NNHVIP) (2019), “Hospital-based violence intervention: Practices and policies to end the cycle of violence” [White Paper]