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
Main Line Health® is a not-for-profit health system serving the greater Philadelphia region. The System comprises five hospitals, seven health centers, more than 160 outpatient and physician practice locations, over 14,500 employees and more than 2,200 employed and independent physicians and advanced practice providers.
Founded in 1985, Main Line Health includes four of the region’s most respected acute care hospitals — Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital — as well as Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, one of the nation’s premier facilities for rehabilitative medicine. The System also includes Mirmont Treatment Center, which provides treatment and support for substance use disorders; Main Line Health HomeCare & Hospice; Main Line HealthCare, its employed multispecialty physician network; Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, a leading biomedical research organization; and Main Line Health Centers offering primary and specialty care, lab, radiology and other outpatient services in Broomall, Collegeville, Concordville, Devon, Exton, King of Prussia and Newtown Square.
Main Line Health brings together physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, researchers and other healthcare professionals across a broad network of inpatient, outpatient, home-based and community-based services. Through this integrated approach, the System delivers high-quality, comprehensive care across the continuum — from primary care and preventive services to complex specialty, surgical, trauma, emergency, rehabilitative, behavioral health, home care and hospice services — with a focus on making care accessible in the communities where people live and work.
Main Line Health also collaborates with leading clinical partners to expand access to specialized care. Through its affiliation with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, pediatric care is provided at select Main Line Health locations, including neonatal intensive care units at its acute care hospitals and Bryn Mawr Hospital’s Inpatient Pediatric Unit and Emergency Department. Jefferson Health neurosurgeons and neurointerventionalists also provide 24/7 specialized care, including neurointervention and lifesaving stroke care.
Contact
Phil Ellingsworth Jr.Associate Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs
Office: 484.580.1182
EllingsworthPh@mlhs.org