Evaluating Skills for Psychological Recovery With Gunshot Injury Survivors in a Hospital-Based Early Intervention Program

Gun violence is a serious public health problem that places surviving victims at increased risk for a variety of mental health problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Recognizing that many gunshot injury survivors lack access to mental health care in the early aftermath of a shooting, there has been growing interest in the use of early, preventive mental health interventions to help prevent long-term mental health complications like PTSD as part of routine care for survivors in acute medical settings, where initial outreach to survivors may be more successful. This study evaluates clinical outcomes associated with one such early intervention-Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR)-provided to gunshot injury survivors as part of a hospital-based early intervention program embedded in a Level 1 trauma center in the Midwestern United States. Clinic data from 100 survivors (74.0% male, 78.0% Black/African American) who received SPR were included in the present study. Results suggest that receiving SPR in the early aftermath of a shooting is associated with statistically significant reductions in both PTSD, F(1, 26.77) = 22.49, p < .001, and depression, F(1, 29.99) = 6.49, p = .016, symptoms. Outcomes did not vary as a function of either PTSD risk status or intervention delivery method (i.e., in-person, telehealth). These findings support the effectiveness and acceptability of SPR as an early intervention for gunshot injury survivors when delivered as part of a hospital-based early intervention program. Public Policy Relevance Statement With a growing number of hospitals across the United States developing early intervention programs for gunshot injury survivors and other patients traumatically injured as a result of community violence, the need for structured interventions that aim to prevent long-term mental health complications and address risk factors for future reinjury is critical. These findings suggest that one early, skills-based intervention-Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR)-was associated with reductions in both PTSD and depression symptoms among recent gunshot injury survivors who were seen as part of a hospital-based early mental health intervention program, typically within the first 3 months postinjury. Identifying data-driven interventions like SPR that flexibly address mental health and social determinants of health should be considered essential to a comprehensive approach to patient care and ensuring the sustainability of hospital-based violence and early mental health intervention programs.