Yasmin Evette Gay, PhD, assistant professor of trauma surgery, recently received the Innovation and Creativity Counseling Award at the 2024 North Carolina Counseling Association Conference (NCCAC).
Dr. Gay was recognized by counseling professionals for her work in developing the Hospital Based Violence Intervention (HBVI) program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, which addresses gun and interpersonal violence.
The program was created in collaboration with the city of Winston-Salem and works to mitigate patients coming into Wake Forest Baptist’s Level 1 trauma center again after experiencing trauma (such as a gunshot wound or assault). The HBVI program is designed to prevent the patient from requiring trauma-level care a second time by providing counselors to work with them when they initially come in and communicating with them on whether they feel their injury would result in retaliation.
The North Carolina Counseling Association is a state branch of the American Counseling Association and represents professional counselors in various work settings.