Healing and Hope After Gun Violence

Anxiety, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, depression, difficulty engaging in life—these are several of the manifestations of trauma brought on by gun violence witnessed by our therapists in the communities that we serve.

The Floating Hospital’s behavioral health team works with patients who have a history of trauma, such as victims of domestic violence and violent crime, including gun violence. Some of our patients may have been threatened or injured with a gun brandished by a stranger, or even their partner in cases of domestic abuse.

Any violence has emotional consequences, but victims may have lasting physical and mental injuries as well. One survivor of a gunshot wound to the head found the neurological impacts upended her life in other significant ways, leading to an inability to work and a fear of leaving her home. “The dangerousness of it, the suddenness of it, is more intense. It creates different triggers,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, director of behavioral health at The Floating Hospital.

During the crack epidemic of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, New York City endured more than 5,000 shooting incidents in a year. Those rates fell steadily over the next decades. Despite an uptick during the Covid lockdowns, the city’s gun incident rates have dropped again in the past three years, and are much lower than many other major cities in the United States. Much of this decline has been attributed to Cure Violence, a program the city adopted in 2012 based on a similar model used in Chicago.

According to the New York City Council’s website, the program defines “violence as a public health issue and seeks to treat it like an infectious disease. Cure Violence takes an evidence-based, public health approach to gun violence by attempting to detect and interrupt conflicts before they escalate, identify and treat high risk individuals (those most likely to commit and/or be victimized by gun violence), and change social norms.”

With onsite medical and mental health services, The Floating Hospital has been receiving grants from this program since 2015, most recently working with City Councilwoman Julie Won and her office in a successful partnership. Our main clinic’s Long Island City location is part of the city’s 114th Precinct, one of the largest precinct areas in NYC, including the Ravenswood, Astoria and Queensbridge public housing projects. The grants have been used by our behavioral health team to treat victims and identify potentially violent situations.

According to Berenny Garcia, a senior case manager, “Many patients—both adults and children—show symptoms of acute stress, fear, anger, and complicated grief. Floating Hospital behavioral health providers are trained in trauma-informed care and grief counseling that they use to support our patients through these experiences, helping them process traumatic events while fostering emotional safety.”

She said treatment “typically involves therapeutic interventions such as individual counseling, crisis support, and ongoing mental health services that are sensitive to cultural and situational factors.”

We provide patients who have been affected by gun use with trauma-focused individual, family, and group therapy to promote community-level healing from the social and emotional impacts of gun violence, and to develop an increased range of coping skills to avoid supporting or resorting to gun violence.

“Healing is often a long, non-linear process,” Garcia said. “But we see progress when patients begin to express their emotions, develop coping strategies, and eventually reach a place of acceptance from which they can begin the process of rebuilding and achieving goals they have for themselves.”

In one case, a “mother who fled to the U.S. with her children after witnessing her husband’s murder sought therapy through our services. She arrived severely traumatized, but with support, she was able to relocate to a shelter, stabilize in permanent housing, and begin the process of securing asylum. Her journey illustrates the resilience of our patients and the critical role trauma-informed care plays in restoring a sense of safety, dignity, and hope.”

We are grateful for the continued support of Councilwoman Won, her office and the New York City Council.