Health officials seek to expand victim intervention program

CHARLOTTE — Health officials want to expand an intervention program that provides victims with critical resources as city and county officials also addressed violence as a public health crisis.

Atrium Health’s hospital-based violence intervention program started seeing victims almost three years ago.

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Staff members said they’ve seen significant results but need more resources to tackle the issue.

Project BOOST provides victims with resources, including mental health support, housing and drug treatment.

It started in 2022 and since then, Atrium Health officials said it’s seen 270 victims of violence, mostly those that involved guns, who have enrolled in the program.

Intervention program manager Britney Brown said a victim of violence who is seen at a hospital has a one in four chance of becoming a victim again.

“We’re seeing a lot of folks that have issues with conflict mediation,” Brown said. “There are small conflicts that grow larger due to social media, lack of mental health services, frustration, and there’s a lot of easy access to weapons right now.”

The program also tracks enrolled individuals at the 90-day mark.

According to staff, 80% of them have not interacted with the justice system after joining the violence intervention program and more than half are not returning to the hospital as a victim for the second time, Brown said.

Medical professionals said there is still more work to be done to combat youth violence despite the program’s positive results.

“We want to have 24-hour coverage,” Brown said. “As we know, violence is not reducing in the city just yet, and so we need more hands-on-deck. And I think this is something, once we move out of intervention, to be preventative as well.”

The Mecklenburg County Health Department and medical professionals from Atrium Health will use the next 45 days to look at the crime data, which they plan to present to the city council.

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