Peter Salovey President | Yale University
Peter Salovey President | Yale University
The Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) recently hosted a panel discussion titled "The Use of Arts & Storytelling to Prevent Firearm Injury" on November 7th. The event brought together researchers and trauma specialists focused on reducing firearm injuries and deaths in the United States.
The panel featured YSPH Activist in Residence Nelba Márquez-Greene, LMFT; Dr. Joseph Richardson Jr., PhD, MPower Professor at the University of Maryland; and Dr. Chana Sacks, MD, MPH, from Massachusetts General Hospital. YSPH Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, moderated the discussion.
Panelists aimed to highlight the stories behind gun violence incidents through storytelling to enhance understanding while respecting victims and survivors. Some panelists shared personal experiences. Márquez-Greene’s daughter was among those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Sacks also lost her cousin in that tragedy.
“I came to understand this world of grief and trauma and gun violence a little bit differently when we became a part of the story,” said Márquez-Greene.
Márquez-Greene hosts the Shared Humanity podcast, focusing on gun violence survivor stories with an emphasis on community and empowerment.
The discussion addressed gun violence as a public health issue often overlooked by many who fail to connect firearm injuries with public health concerns. The panel stressed understanding social determinants of health like poverty and racism that underlie America's violence epidemic rather than focusing solely on statistics.
Richardson highlighted racial disparities using life expectancy examples from Washington D.C., illustrating how race impacts health outcomes, including gun violence affecting young Black men disproportionately.
“If it bleeds, it leads,” said Sacks about media coverage sensationalizing gun violence without delving into personal stories or social factors behind such tragedies.
To raise awareness, the panel emphasized written and digital storytelling co-created with survivors to humanize incidents beyond mere numbers. Such narratives drive people toward data by melding humanism with statistical insights into public health complexities behind gun violence statistics.
Sacks incorporates survivor stories into her teaching at Harvard Medical School to transform narratives around gun violence through firsthand accounts from survivors themselves.
“We have denied the pain of gun violence survivors for far too long,” stated Márquez-Greene.
The full discussion is available on the YSPH YouTube channel.
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