Public health approaches to gun violence discussed at ‘Seeking Solutions’ event
Reducing gun violence in Missouri will require addressing social determinants of health and properly funding and supporting public health services, panelists said Wednesday during a digital program hosted by The Kansas City Star and American Public Square at Jewell.
The event was a part of The Star’s Gun Violence in Missouri: Seeking Solutions series of virtual events organized in conjunction with the Missouri Gun Violence Project — a two-year, statewide journalism collaboration that investigates the causes and potential solutions to gun violence. Nonprofits Report for America and Missouri Foundation for Health support the project.
Wednesday’s discussion, moderated by Andres Dominguez, a senior program officer at the nonprofit Health Forward Foundation in Kansas City, examined how public health issues, racial inequality and other factors contribute to gun violence problems.
Panelists included Arletha Bland-Manlove, an Independence resident and community organizer who lost a nephew to gun violence in 2020; Mikel Whittier, justice and social equity strategist formerly at the St. Louis Integrated Health Network; Dr. Marvia Jones, violence prevention and policy manager at the Kansas City Health Department and Jalen Anderson, a Jackson County legislator.
Bland-Manlove, whose nephew, Matthew Bland-Williams, was shot and killed last year, said the system failed Bland-Williams and the man who likely killed him.
“That young man had not had enough resources to redirect his way of thinking, to give him skill sets to cope with anger and managing emotions, even resources to educate himself to think differently and understand things differently,” Bland-Manlove said. “That’s where I feel like the system failed us and undervalued Matthew’s life and the lives of the community.
“It is our leadership’s duty to not just house them or incarcerate them or put them on house arrest, but to give them the resources to make better decisions and give them the resources to not continue to be in the system.”
Whittier said Bland-Williams’ story is similar to the experiences of many families across Missouri. Part of the problem, he said, is decreased funding of social and health services at the state level.
Those programs are focused on improving the underlying life conditions in a community: income, housing and food security, schools and living environments, also known as social determinants of health.
“We see so many of these issues intersecting with gun violence, we need to address that, “ Whittier said. “And it will not come in the form of a traditional public safety policy, but it will come in the form of properly funding health departments that can respond and put in preventative measures to support people.”
From 2012 to 2014, gun related injuries that lead to a trip to the emergency room cost a total of $42 million in the St. Louis region, Whittier said. The cost of supporting and funding social services organizations, he said, is half of that.
Jones said a singular focus on the punitive approach to addressing violence has not been effective, largely because it doesn’t acknowledge the underlying factors in a person’s life.
A public health approach recognizes that all parts of a community have a responsibility to reduce violence. For example, Jones said, good investment in education is violence prevention funding.
“When you’re not seeing that, it’s a signal that you can expect public health outcomes not to improve,” Jones said. “Access to quality teachers, teachers who are retained, teachers who feel supported and have the resources they need to give children a fighting chance, that is prevention.”
Anderson, a county legislator with the 1st District at-large that includes the whole of Jackson County, said the Missouri lawmakers should be prioritizing legislation that would support, expand and fund public health and violence prevention programs.
However, the Missouri General Assembly hasn’t made those efforts a priority.
“There are many who are doing their best to get legislation passed, “Anderson said. “For example, Rep. Ashley Bland-Manlove has proposed several bills and suggested several ideas on how to tackle gun violence and bring about a more community focused approach.”
But those bills are never given a chance to go to committees and they never get a chance to succeed, Anderson said.
“There is not a willingness to even have a conversation about any of the things we face with gun violence.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 4:28 PM.
