The winners of the 2022 annual DC Public Health Case Challenge were announced at this year's National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Annual Meeting. The challenge promotes interdisciplinary, problem-based learning around a public health issue that Washington, DC, communities face. Universities in the DC area form teams of five to six members from at least three disciplines. Teams are given a case, written by students from the participating universities, that provides background information on a local public health problem.
GW's group, Public Health in Action, is an interdisciplinary nonprofit with public health, law, medicine, and nursing backgrounds. At this year's Challenge, Public Health in Action presented and won grant funding for Voice to Interrupt & Violence to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) among youth in Washington, DC.
During their presentation, the team reenacted a real-world example of two sixth graders in a relationship who are at risk of experiencing and perpetrating IPV. Public Health in Action's VIP program's five-year goal is to reduce the prevalence of IPV among middle and high school students in Wards 6, 7, and 8 in Washington, DC, from 10 percent to 5 percent by 2028.
Public Health in Action also plans to reduce IPV with a multi-tiered approach at the organizational, community, and policy levels to help middle and high schoolers develop healthy, respectful, intimate relationships.