I am sharing the important work of the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute – (AAI). I have been on the advisory board of AAI since 2018 and continue to be inspired by its mission to prevent firearm injuries through a public health lens. Reframe conversations are happening in communities across the country. This upcoming event is virtual, free, and open to everyone who cares about community health and safety.
Reframe Springfield: Addressing Firearm-Related Suicide
About this event – Wed, Dec 8, 2021, 7:00 PM EST
Join AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, and Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH), for Reframe Springfield as we address suicide and its impact on the Springfield, MO community and strategies to promote healing and prevention.
AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute (AAI) works to prevent firearm-related injuries by viewing the issue through a health lens. AAI is led by emergency physicians who treat gunshot wounds and understand the upstream problems and far-reaching ripple effects of each firearm injury. They see first-hand how violence begets violence, and therefore know how to interrupt the trajectory of behaviors and circumstances that lead to harm. As the frontline of the US healthcare safety net, emergency physicians recognize social health problems and trends long before anyone else. Our mission and expertise focus exclusively on health-based injury prevention, not policy positions. Our programs address the health-related behaviors that influence how our fellow humans cause harm to themselves and one another.
While respecting and honoring the right to own and bear arms (one of our co-founders is also a 4-H youth rifle instructor), we educate, engage, and ultimately empower communities through our flagship program, “Reframe.” Reframe does just that – it “reframes” the circular and unproductive conversation surrounding firearm injury, like the default gun control versus gun rights debate. Instead, we focus on providing medical expertise to communities in need through stories shared by individuals impacted by a firearm-related injury. Then, we create custom education based on the narratives shared and address the needs and prevalent type(s) of firearm-related violence facing that community (suicide, homicide, accidental injury, etc.)
We’re working with Missouri Foundation for Health on a public health project in Springfield, MO, that examines suicide. Reframe events are traditionally in-person events where these narratives are shared with an audience, but due to COVID, we’re exploring virtual alternatives. Join us as we share these stories in a way that honors the storyteller and their experience and conveys the depth of the problem, followed by our expert panel offering real, immediate, health-based solutions.
