Brown School home to new Injury Control Research Center |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention (CVIP) at Washington University’s Brown School as one of its newest Injury Control Research Centers (ICRC) in July 2009.
Preventing child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, suicide and related injuries through community-based research and educational outreach is the goal of the CVIP. These forms of violence have varied and serious consequences across the lifespan and represent a significant cost to individuals and society. They also are widespread sources of immediate and longer term injury during early childhood and young adulthood. CVIP will emphasize work that impacts families with young children and youth as they transition to young adulthood.
Associate Professor Melissa Jonson-Reid will lead the new CVIP. John Constantino, M.D., the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine, serves as co-director.
“Connecting research to communities is a primary focus for CDC and we are pleased that the Brown CVIP is part of this critical research network,” said Dr. Ileana Arias, Director of CDC’s Injury Center. “Their work addresses critical gaps and can help shape a better understanding of how to improve the lives of those affected so that they can live to their full potential.”
CDC’s Injury Control Research Centers are located at 11 academic health centers throughout the United States. At each center, scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines focus upon discovering how to prevent and control injuries more effectively. They also work to identify critical knowledge gaps in injury risk and protection and also conduct research to address these gaps. Furthermore, this network of centers also provide technical assistance to injury prevention and control programs within their geographic region.
“We are honored to be the first school of social work selected to host one of the CDC’s Injury Control Research Centers,” said Jonson-Reid. “We are excited by this opportunity to advance evidence-based primary prevention of violence among young families, as well as intervention that can reduce harmful consequences such as a child victim’s increased risk of later perpetration of violence toward themselves or others.”
Effective prevention, intervention, and state-of-the-art transdisciplinary training necessitates extensive collaboration. The CVIP will be working with outstanding researchers from multiple disciplines at Washington University, the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri- St Louis, the Saint Louis University School of Public Health, members of a research advisory board composed of national experts, and a field agency advisory board composed of local- and state-level agency representatives.
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