UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) awards yearly Seed Grants to fund innovative research on a wide range of health topics. Each year the Seed Grants are used to fund pilot projects and examine significant health-related research questions.
Department of Public Policy (DPP) Associate Professor In-Residence Jennifer Dineen and Associate Professor Kerri M. Raissian were awarded a FY20 Seed Grant with Assistant Professor Mitchell L. Doucette of Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) and Dr. Brendan T. Campbell of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC). The quartet received the FY20 InCHIP Gun Violence Prevention Seed Grant, and will investigate “Using Interviews to Learn What Physicians Can Tell Us about Facilitators and Barriers to Firearm Medical Screenings in Diverse Clinical Settings.” They are working to specifically look at the effectiveness of safe storage laws in reducing firearm related deaths.
How the team met
Raissian and Dineen participated in a legislative hearing arranged by State Representative Jillian Gilchrest on “The Role of Healthcare Providers in Preventing Gun Violence” in April of 2019. At this hearing they met Campbell who had done work on the role of firearm safe storage and pediatric firearm injury. This hearing sparked their interest in their Seed Grant topic.
They met Doucette at the first organizational meeting of InCHIP’s Gun Violence Prevention Research Interest Group (GVP-RIG) in December. Doucette had also done work in the area of safe storage.
In February of 2020 InCHIP’s Gun Violence Prevention Research Interest Group (GVP-RIG) held their first seminar at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, where Dr. Campbell presented.
How the grant came together
When they began writing their InCHIP grant, Dineen and Raissian realized they needed additional expertise regarding safe storage and a physician on the team. They then recruited Campbell and Doucette. They hope to utilize the grant to understand what facilitates and prevents general practitioners from engaging in conversations about safe storage with their patients.
The quartet plan to utilize the results of this pilot study to write a larger external grant to engage more physicians. They then plan to develop an appropriate tool to promote physician-patient conversations about firearm safety.
Congratulations to InCHIP’s 2020 Seed Grant recipients!
InCHIP’s Gun Violence Prevention Research Interest Group (GVP-RIG) connects scholars and advocates with interests in understanding the correlates, causes, and solutions for firearm violence in America. GVP-RIG’s leadership team consists of Professor of Sociology Mary Bernstein, Associate Professor In-Residence of Public Policy and Graduate Program in Survey Research Program Director Jennifer Dineen and Associate Professor of Public Policy Kerri M. Raissian. The group plans to convene again in the coming months.