Help Reduce Violent Deaths: Explore Our New Tool
Let me introduce you to Carol. She’s a state public health official who notices an increase in reports of suicide. She wants to develop prevention efforts. Where can she find information to help her target strategies for her state?

CDC has just launched an online tool that will help Carol find exactly what she needs.

WISQARS™  NVDRS provides easy-to-access data on violent deaths. It is the newest component of WISQARS™, the Injury Center’s interactive system that provides customized reports of injury-related data. This newest module provides data on violent deaths from the National Violent Death Reporting System. Currently, the information is gathered from 16 funded states.  

NVDRS is a unique resource because it provides a comprehensive picture of the circumstances surrounding a particular homicide or suicide. It brings together information about victims from multiple sources—death certificates and reports from law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and crime labs.  Importantly, the system also links information across victims so we can better understand events where there are multiple deaths – such as school or workplace shootings or homicides followed by suicides.

So how does this help the public health official, Carol? By using WISQARS^TM NVDRS, she can identify characteristics of risk groups and determine optimal points for intervention. In addition to suicides, the system includes data on homicides, legal intervention deaths, unintentional firearm deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent. It also provides information on critical public health problems like intimate partner homicides, suicides among youth, suicides among persons with military service, and infant/child deaths.

Good data are essential in making sound, smart investments. WISQARS^TM NVDRS is an important resource for public health officials, researchers, media and decision-makers because understanding the circumstances of violent deaths is critical to any successful violence prevention program or policy.

Help us reduce violent deaths. Check out this new tool, and let me know what you think.

Send me a comment today.

Posted by: Ileana Arias, Friday, Nov 14, 2008, 03:30 pm ETT