Introduction: The Connecticut Department of Public Health (CTDPH) is applying for the Notice of Funding Opportunity #CDC-RFA-CE22-2201 for the grant period 2022-2027. The Connecticut Violent Death Reporting System (CTVDRS) has been supported by federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds for the past 8 years, beginning in 2014. The CTVDRS collects primary violent death data from the CT State Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, death certificate data from the State Office of Vital Records, the State Police (CT Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection), and local police departments. Violent death data include deaths due to homicide, suicide, legal intervention, and terrorism, unintentional firearm deaths, and deaths of undetermined intent. These data are abstracted and compiled on an annual basis and submitted to the CDC. Data results are disseminated to state partners and discussed with the CTVDRS Advisory Board biannually for their feedback and suggestions.
Data Analyses and Reports: Once CTVDRS data are finalized, they are ready for trend and co-factor analyses by DPH epidemiologists and external partners. Each year, CTVDRS develops an annual report which contains in-depth and multi-year information on types of violent deaths, weapons used, circumstances that may have contributed to the deaths, and demographic statistics. One of the interesting public health studies that DPH plans to conduct in the next 5 years is to observe the difference in trends between the pre-pandemic years, the acute pandemic years, and the post-pandemic period. In the past 8 years, CT has experienced two distinct time periods of violent death trends, the pre-COVID-19 pandemic years (2015-2019) and the acute COVID-19 pandemic years (2020-2021). CTVDRS will analyze the trends that emerge in the post pandemic period (2022 to 2027) and compare those trends to the pre-pandemic and acute pandemic time periods.
Partnerships and Disseminating Surveillance Data: The CTVDRS program will work with suicide prevention groups, including program staff from the Comprehensive Suicide Prevention Program awarded to DPH in 2020, to further reduce the suicide rates within CT as was seen during the acute pandemic period (see Background Section of the Project Narrative). Also during the COVID-19 pandemic, CT experienced a sharp increase in homicide rates (see Background Section). CTVDRS will partner with hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP), such as St. Francis Hospital and Hartford Communities That Care partnership, and with street violence intervention groups to reduce homicides and community (gun) violence in CT. Current HVIPs are in Hartford, New Haven and expanding to Bridgeport and CT Children’s Medical Center in the coming years.
In the 1st year of the new grant, CT will work to develop an interactive CTVDRS Data Dashboard which can be shared as a web link to state partners. The Dashboard will be updated at least annually and maintained over the duration of the grant cycle. DPH will also work to geocode violent deaths and visually display them on CT state and County maps to provide context to where violent deaths have occurred in CT.