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On Wednesday, Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, the director of health for the City of St. Louis, shared in a press conference that the city's Department of Health and Office of Violence Prevention met in the wake of the school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School with leaders from Saint Louis Public Schools, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, local and state officials, behavioral health programs, and other leaders to set new goals around violence prevention.
"At that meeting, we debriefed about this tragic event. We shared updates and discuss openly the realities of where we are today as it relates to violence," Davis said.
Monday's school shooting left three dead, including the accused gunman, Orlando Harris. In a Wednesday press conference, St. Louis Interim Police Chief Michael Sack shared that Harris' family was aware that he had mental health struggles and "were constantly in touch with the medical providers."
The community health, education, and public safety leaders were able to set goals that, Davis said, "will allow us to collaboratively deliver the necessary resources to support victims, families, and our community." She stressed that gun violence is a complicated public health issue and requires collaboration, not working in silos. "Alone, we can achieve very little," Davis said. "But together we can effectively impact the kind of unprecedented change that is needed."
The action steps, according to Davis, are:
1. "To provide an equitable, community-wide response to all the recent gun violence. Because understand that while this tragedy is a tragedy, the day before, there were eight deaths due to gun violence. This has created an acute and chronic crisis and trauma for our city."
2. "We will focus on two core areas, including an improvement of both school-based and community-wide behavioral health interventions that are inclusive and data-driven. We have a network of over 35 distinguished behavioral health leaders that have been committed to serving the city for decades that will be meeting daily to collectively develop a set of short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals with an action plan for community-based care that is equitable and aimed to reduce any disparities in care."
3. "The Department of Health and Office of Violence Prevention will lead a biweekly meeting to create an action plan that will improve long-term school-focused behavioral health interventions."
4. "The Department of Health has committed to providing centralized and coordinated communication, education, mapping of data to support these forthcoming initiatives."
St. Louisans who are struggling to cope in the wake of the school shooting can call the Behavioral Health Response hotline 24 hours a day for confidential counseling. That number is 314-469-6644. Help can also be reached by dialing 988.
This month, St. Louis launched the city's first Behavioral Health Bureau, which focuses on mental health and substance use treatment.
