Main Line Health, Leading Healthcare Systems across the Tri-State Area Join National Gun Safety Movement to Address Leading Cause of Death in Kids
Regional partners join thousands of hospitals and health associations nationwide to encourage families to ask about gun access and safety measures.
In an effort to encourage families and communities to take an active role in protecting children from gun violence, leading healthcare systems across Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey have joined thousands of hospitals and health associations in a nationwide public awareness and education campaign.
The campaign, “It Doesn’t Kill to Ask,” focuses on providing caregivers, parents, and community members with actionable tools to speak up about safe gun storage and help them feel empowered to ask other parents about access to guns in a home their child might visit.
Gun violence requires a comprehensive approach to prevention and treatment through community education, outreach, and advocacy. A key part of prevention is normalizing conversations about gun storage. The campaign comes at a time when an average of 13 children die from guns every day, making guns the leading cause of death in children.
Through a series of broadcast, print and digital public service messages, along with a website, the campaign will highlight that access to unlocked guns may lead to death, suicide, and gun violence, making it more likely that children will die from guns than cancer or automobile accidents. The website provides tips on how to have a conversation with other parents and families about safely stored firearms and encourages making this conversation as normal as asking about pets or food allergies before a playdate.
Given the prevalence of gun violence across the tri-state area, and in Philadelphia in particular, 13 regional hospitals and health systems are uniting to face this crisis together, as they’ve done to encourage masking during COVID-19 and other efforts to help protect public health in our communities.
The campaign is spearheaded by Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health system.
Media Contact: Phil Ellingsworth Jr, ellingsworthph@mlhs.org; 484.580.1182
About Main Line Health
Founded in 1985, Main Line Health® is a not-for-profit health system serving the Philadelphia region and beyond. Main Line Health consists of five hospitals, six health centers and over 150 medical practice locations. The System has more than 14,000 employees and over 2,100 employed and independent physicians and advanced practice providers.
At its core are four of the region's most respected acute care hospitals — Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital — as well as one of the nation's premier facilities for rehabilitative medicine, Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital. Main Line Health also includes Mirmont Treatment Center for drug and alcohol recovery; Main Line Health HomeCare & Hospice, providing skilled home healthcare, hospice and home infusion services; Main Line Health Centers, primary and specialty care, lab and radiology and other outpatient services located in Broomall, Collegeville, Concordville, Exton, King of Prussia and Newtown Square; and Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, a biomedical research organization.
Main Line Health's medical staff benefits from a collaborative relationship including independent physicians, community healthcare professionals and hospital-based experts from Main Line HealthCare, the employed multi-specialty physician network of Main Line Health.
Main Line Health collaborates with top experts to deliver exceptional specialty care. Through our affiliation with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, doctors and advanced practice providers care for pediatric patients at select Main Line Health locations, including the neonatal intensive care units at Main Line Health's four acute care hospitals, as well as Bryn Mawr Hospital's Inpatient Pediatric Unit and Emergency Department. Jefferson Health neurosurgeons and neurointerventionalists provide 24/7 specialized care, including neurointervention and lifesaving stroke care, and trauma surgeons provide critical care to our patients. Through our affiliation with Sheppard Pratt — a nonprofit provider of mental health services, substance use, developmental disability and other comprehensive behavioral health support — patients receive compassionate care in a welcoming environment.
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