By J. Brian Charles, The Trace, November 14, 2020
On the first Monday in October, three men came calling for David Ross at his office, located in the University of Maryland’s Medical Center campus in downtown Baltimore. All three men had survived gunshot wounds, and their visits to Ross, a licensed social worker at the hospital’s Violence Intervention Program, could mean that they were looking for socks or hats, necessary items for the coming winter. But on that day, an unseasonably warm one, the men didn’t knock on Ross’s door looking for clothes.
One man, a 27-year-old, had lost his job and worried that, even with the moratorium on evictions put in place during the COVID-19 outbreak, he would lose his home. Ross assuaged those fears. Another man in his 20s asked Ross to put some money on his Charm Card, Baltimore’s electronic transportation pass. And a third man needed help with the Internet. “With him being older,” Ross said of the 62-year-old, “it is a little bit more difficult for him to navigate.” He also wanted to bend Ross’s ear for a few minutes. The man lives alone, so these visits double as social calls.
Mondays at the Violence Intervention Program are generally busy. The weekend often brings a fresh round of shootings to Baltimore, and leaves the hospital’s Shock Trauma Center flush with new victims for Ross to counsel. The cases pile up: three to five gunshot patients are usually waiting — and so are old clients who come back weeks, months, and sometimes years after they have been discharged from the hospital. They come looking for simple, tangible things — a toothbrush or a new pair of socks — but stay for long, informal therapy sessions. “They will come to get some toiletries and they will talk about a dilemma they are having,” Ross said.
Comments (0)