In the past five years, Vermont has had an average of 161 violent deaths per year in the state. While the total number of violent deaths in Vermont may be small compared to more populous states, Vermont has high rates of suicide compared to the US (18.1 versus 13.5 per 100,000, 2020 data, most recent available for US). Additionally, Vermont experienced a record number of suicide deaths in 2021 (21.0 per 100,000, a 16% increase. The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) is applying to continue participation in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS).
Purpose: The purpose of the Vermont Violent Death Reporting System (VTVDRS) is to collect, analyze and disseminate accurate, timely and comprehensive surveillance data on all violent deaths in Vermont meeting the CDC guidelines for violent death. Data from electronic death certificates, investigative data, autopsy reports, toxicology test results, law enforcement reports and medical records will be abstracted and entered into the CDC web-based data entry system, NVDRS, for the purposes of informing violence prevention efforts and, ultimately, reducing morbidity and mortality related to violence in Vermont.
Outcomes:
1. Improved completeness, timeliness, and quality of violent death surveillance data (e.g., decedent sexual orientation, gender identity, firearm-related information).
2. Stronger relationships with key partners.
3. Increased access to VTVDRS data by the public and partners to inform their violence and possibly injury prevention activities.
4. Increased use of violent death surveillance data by partners to inform violence prevention programmatic and policy decisions.
5. Increased ability to describe the geographic distribution of violent deaths and understand the social determinants of health in relation to violent death-related health disparities.
Strategies and Activities: VDH will engage in four primary strategies to achieve implementation of VTVDRS. These strategies include:
1. Collect NVDRS data.
2. Analyze, interpret, and disseminate NVDRS data annually to characterize trends in violence mortality, understand disparities, and inform violence prevention efforts.
3. Conduct data-driven planning, monitoring and evaluation to support continuous surveillance improvement.
4. Build capacity for epidemiologic science, geocoding, and conducting linkage to data with information on social determinants of health or other relevant data.
An extensive list of activities have been identified to ensure timely, quality data is collected, enhanced epidemiologic analyses are completed, and data is disseminated to inform violence prevention and intervention strategies. All grant work will be guided by a cross-sector advisory group with special focus on ensuring analysis are completed to inform prevention among disproportionately affected populations.
VDH foresees no barriers in successful implementation of VTVDRS. Both the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) and Vermont’s Vital statistics are administratively located within VDH. As a result, access to data sources is straightforward. Also, the proposed staff for this grant opportunity has experience collecting, analyzing and reporting on OCME, injury and mortality data. VDH has all the elements in place for successful implementation of a violent death surveillance program due to VDH’s organizational structure, subject matter expertise and existing relationships with stakeholders.