From Emergency Response to Prevention: A New Public Health Approach to Gun Violence
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By Ryann Swift on July 23, 2025
Community Health and Violence Prevention Services in Harris County
Gun violence has become a public health emergency in the United States. This crisis is now the leading cause of death for children and teens, surpassing motor vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each day, more than 110 people are killed by guns, and over 200 suffer non-fatal injuries. Behind every statistic are the ripple effects of trauma, fear, and grief that affect survivors, families, and entire communities for generations.
Harris County Public Health (HCPH) recognizes that preventative measures have long proven effective against public health emergencies. This past June, HCPH joined communities nationwide in Gun Violence Awareness Month, applying these same proven prevention principles to address firearm violence locally. The effort drew considerable attention to what many public health officials now see as a threat to public health, not merely a law enforcement issue. Even as the prevalence of gun violence persists, there’s renewed hope that by classifying gun violence as a public health issue, prevention and healing can prevail.
Even as the prevalence of gun violence persists, there’s renewed hope that by classifying gun violence as a public health issue, prevention and healing can prevail.
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Preventive measures have long been an effective approach to public health emergencies. Taking a public health approach to seemingly intractable social problems has consistently demonstrated remarkable success in reducing preventable deaths.
Consider motor vehicle deaths which dropped by over 80% per mile traveled since the 1960s through a combination of engineering solutions (safer cars, better roads), policy changes (seatbelt laws, drunk driving enforcement), and educational campaigns, while tobacco control efforts reduced adult smoking rates from 41.9% in 1965 to 11.6% in 2022 through taxation, advertising restrictions, smoke-free policies, and cessation programs.
These successes provide a blueprint for Harris County public health officials who now advocate for applying similar preventative strategies to gun violence. Through comprehensive, multi-faceted strategies like HART and RISE that treat potentially dangerous behaviors as medical rather than purely criminal issues, Harris County Public Health hopes to achieve the same results as similar national campaigns of the past.
Learn more about HCPH’s violence prevention work by visiting the
HCPH Community Health and Violence Prevention Services webpage or call (713) 274-4877.
Public Health Approach Offers Hope
Learn more about HCPH’s violence prevention work
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Sponsored by Harris County Public Health
Gun violence is not caused by any one single factor. Harris County recognizes that addressing a problem of such complexity requires a comprehensive solution. By targeting the root causes of violence while strengthening social supports that provide access to mental health, behavioral health, and a variety of other services, Harris County sees a way forward. HCPH’s Community Health and Violence Prevention Services (CHVPS) Division was created for just such an approach. CHVPS seeks to prevent and reduce violence through trauma-informed, best practice strategies, including:
Hospital-linked violence intervention
Credible messenger
Behavioral and social services support
Community outreach and education
By employing a multi-pronged strategy that prioritizes prevention and healing, residents of Harris County have several entry points into a de-escalation mindset and pro-social lifestyle.
Comprised of two programs—the Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART) – the fourth response model in Harris County – and the Relentless Interrupters Serving Everyone (RISE) program—CHVPS uses public health approaches to prevent violence. While RISE focuses on community-based and hospital-linked violence interruption, HART provides an alternative emergency response.
RISE is a community-based solution to reducing gun violence using a public health approach that operates outside of and is complementary to law enforcement. This program utilizes credible messengers to interrupt violence and defuse immediate tensions in an effort to help build long-term peace while creating a safer community for everyone. This is achieved by employing members of the community who have had similar life experiences to those at the highest risk of committing acts of violence or becoming a victim of violence.
The program has four primary components:
HART + RISE = A Safer Harris County
Credible Messengers/Outreach Specialists/Violence Interrupters: Individuals and locations most impacted by violence need community insiders to bring credible messaging/trust-building to help break the cycle of gun violence. RISE is actively hiring individuals who have strong connections to the neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence to work with the programs. Call (713) 274-4877 or email ViolencePrevention@phs.hctx.net.
Community-Based Outreach: Credible messengers who are trained in conflict resolution and mediation are sent into the community to intervene in situations prior to escalation or a loss of life. These RISE team members often reside in the very neighborhoods where they work and share similar backgrounds with the residents they seek to support. By building rapport with at-risk individuals and learning their stories, team members can establish the trust necessary for dialogue. Outreach Specialists are on call 24/7 to reduce tensions in real time, prevent violent incidents, and prevent retaliations.
Hospital-Linked Intervention: As the most common destination for victims of serious violent injuries, emergency rooms and trauma centers serve as key inflection points in breaking cycles of violence. At Ben Taub Hospital and HCA Northwest hospital bedsides, credible messengers meet with victims, their families, and social networks to assess and intervene in the event of retaliatory activity. Messengers understand the underlying needs of survivors and their families and connect them to coordinated care teams to aid in their recovery beyond discharge.
Ongoing Community Engagement: Community Violence Intervention Program staff are present in the pilot communities to engage residents, distribute public education materials, and host community-building activities to promote neighborhood cohesion, communicating clear messaging surrounding gun violence.
The second arm of the Community Violence Intervention Program, HART, is a direct action intervention that dispatches non-violent 911 calls directly to unarmed, interdisciplinary first-responder teams trained in behavioral health and on-scene medical assistance. HART aims to improve community health and safety by quickly providing the appropriate response to community members experiencing homelessness, behavioral health issues, or non-emergency health or social welfare concerns, and to reduce unnecessary law enforcement or hospital-based interventions for non-emergency 911 calls.
Since launching in March 2022, HART has already demonstrated measurable impact, responding to over 20,000 calls and connecting over 1,100 vulnerable residents to appropriate services. HART now operates in two HCSO Districts, with 11 teams, 7 days a week, with coverage from 6 am to 10 pm.
HART + RISE = A Safer Harris County
Public Health Approach Offers Hope