Program aims to blunt violence

Duke Endowment grant funds project started by three MUSC nursing professionals

Jill Coley
The Post and Courier

Principal Dina the dinosaur, Felicia Feelings (center) and Wallie the detective soon will enter classrooms at Burns Elementary School to teach children how to better understand and control their emotions. The Incredible Years program, which uses the puppets, is one part of MUSC's violence intervention program.

Three nursing professionals from the Medical University of South Carolina have embarked upon an ambitious project to tackle violence. And their multi-pronged solution is about as complex as the problem.

Now armed with an $817,466 grant from The Duke Endowment, the program is gearing up for its first phase, which will take prevention and intervention tactics into a North Charleston school, medical clinic and neighborhood.

The concept grew organically, said Deborah Williamson, associate dean of practice at MUSC's College of Nursing. About a year ago, Williamson began urging doctors to consider domestic violence a health issue after surveys revealed many in the profession considered the issue a legal problem.

Dianna Inman, a pediatric nurse practitioner, who evaluates children in the school-based clinic at Edmund A. Burns Elementary School, understands well the impact that violence has on children.

And geographer Lisa Vandemark appreciates the importance of place, or how a zip code can shape people's lives, from income to health outcomes.

One day in conversation, the three women paused. They realized that a problem as pervasive as violence needs a solution just as ubiquitous.

The project, titled "Reducing Violence: A Template for the State," has three strategies.

First, a layered map will be built using crime statistics from North Charleston police and existing community resources, such as transportation, mental health services and substance abuse treatment programs.

In addition to linking problems and solutions, the map may also reveal patterns that could lead to policy changes. If, for example, abandoned houses correspond with increased crime rates, perhaps the city council could legislate new codes.

"We will go to the people who live there and see what's influencing violence," Vandemark said. "We will use nursing students with GPS for neighborhood level maps."

Second, a program called "The Incredible Years" that involves students, teachers and parents will begin at Burns Elementary, where Inman already has established a working relationship.

The curriculum is designed to reduce aggression, defiance and insubordination, misbehaviors identified by teachers as interfering with instruction about half of the time, according to the grant application.

Students will use puppets, among other tools, to learn social skills and anger management. From Tiny Turtle, they can learn to go inside their shell and calm down. And Felicia Feelings will model how to talk about her emotions.

Inman said that as students increase their vocabulary to describe feelings, they also learn how to manage behavior. In the short term, the goal is to decrease aggression and disruption, and in the long term, to prevent delinquency, drug abuse and violence.

The third piece is a patient navigation program through the Franklin C. Fetter community health center that is the medical home for families who live in the targeted North Charleston neighborhood. Training will be offered to staff for screening of victims of violence.

"Women won't admit (they're being abused) until they're asked three times," Vandemark said.

The collaborative nature of this initiative has few boundaries, Williamson said. Students from MUSC's various colleges will help through the Presidential Scholars program. And students from other area colleges, including the Charleston School of Law, will have a part to play.

"A problem as complex as violence takes multiple interventions," Williamson said. "It takes a community and more than one factor in a community."

Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com.