MILWAUKEE (AP) - A Milwaukee program’s expansion may allow more children and families to receive counseling in response to exposure to gun violence and other trauma.
The Milwaukee Trauma Response Initiative began as a pilot project two years ago in a police district with the city’s worst gun violence, Wisconsin Public Radio (https://bit.ly/2mmwHYX ) reported. The city and Milwaukee County agreed to expand the effort to another high-violence police district after 240 children or families were referred for counseling last year.
Milwaukee Alderwoman Milele Coggs said many people affected by gunfire don’t make the headlines.
“For every news story that you see, it is likely some child in that home, along that block or in that neighborhood, saw that violence, witnessed that shooting,” Coggs said at a Tuesday news conference.
Hendriel Anderson, psychiatric clinician at the Trauma Response Initiative, said it’s important to reassure children they did the right thing in violent situations.
“If a child hid under the bed, or called 911, while the violence was occurring, I want that child to know that’s exactly what I would have done, and that’s what kept them safe,” Anderson said.
In each of the last two years, there were over 100 fatal shootings in Milwaukee. About 600 people are wounded by gunfire each year.
Mental health professionals say children who witness violence might be more likely to commit violent acts when they grow up if they don’t get trauma counseling.
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Information from: Wisconsin Public Radio, https://www.wpr.org
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