MUSC-based center hosts national webinars aimed at improving lives of people affected by mass violence

The National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center, based at the Medical University of South Carolina, has helped to create a series of webinars aimed at changing how hospitals prepare for and handle the aftermath of mass violence. It’s collaborating with the American Hospital Association on the project.

“We’re going to try to capture lightning in a bottle,” said Michael Schmidt, Ph.D., co-director of health and environmental crimes at the NMVVRC. “What we’re thinking about is really the road to resiliency. And how you get communities back to normal, to the degree possible.”

The webinars, which will be on the NMVVRC’s website, include national experts on trauma and mass violence. “Collectively, these are going to focus on how trauma and behavioral medicine intersect with the social and physical services that victims, survivors and care providers require immediately, short term and long term, after the incident,” Schmidt said.

The project has the support of key national organizations. “We have buy-in from the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and the American Trauma Society. These are the people on the front lines.”

The webinars’ target audience is hospital leaders, such as CEOs, because they make the big decisions about what to invest time and money in. “Hospitals can be part of the solution,” Schmidt said. “All hospitals have to continuously prepare for the unthinkable – hurricanes, earthquakes, plane crashes. They also have to plan for mass violence. We really need to take some of the lessons we’re learning from the victims and systematize it and make it second nature into our planning and preparation.” 

 

The first webinar introduces the NMVVRC, which was started in 2017 at MUSC in partnership with the Office for Victims of Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice. MUSC was a good fit in part because it already had a National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center. The webinars are the latest outcome of the center’s collaborative agreement with the DOJ.

The second webinar focuses on the October 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, with 60 deaths now linked to the massacre. The webinar features the CEOs of two Las Vegas hospital systems that dealt with the crime’s aftermath.

The third webinar looks at how hospitals can prepare for and respond to mass violence. “We’re really trying to elevate the discussion, including what individuals you need to have at the planning table when you’re preparing for the unthinkable. We need to involve social workers, potential victims, survivors and you need to think about the continuum of care,” Schmidt said.

The fourth is about recovery and resiliency. Its experts include trauma surgeons, the president of the American Trauma Society and the NMVVRC’s Aurelia Sands Belle. “We have people who were in the trenches responding. With a single voice, they are stressing the need for continuity of care and the principal argument we’re going to make is better outcomes – it’s all about the outcome for the patient as well as the health of the care team.”

Schmidt said the webinars tackle important questions. “What do we need to be doing during our preparations and response phases? And more importantly, we want them to address the question of how hospitals and systems can achieve this. We also address, 'What considerations do we need to consider for the communities that we’re located in, our staff, and of course, the victims?’” Schmidt said.

“And then the other question we really want to get at is how do we train that next generation? You’re not just responding to the trauma – this is someone’s loved one you’re caring for. How do we instill that empathic process in the care provider in that urgent and often chaotic situation?”

While the webinars are designed for leaders, they will be available to anybody who wants to watch them on the NMVVRC’s website.