• Texas was building a program to find troubled students and prevent school shootings. It hadn’t reached Uvalde yet.

Created in 2019, the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium identifies distressed students and refers them to mental health services.

The Texas Tribune

By most accounts, the Uvalde school gunman was the type of person a fledgling $290 million Texas youth mental health program was designed to reach — before his apparent distress and instability could escalate to mass violence. Created by state lawmakers in 2019 and already in more than 300 school districts comprising some 40% of the state’s school population, the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium of experts operating from a dozen universities across the state has treated more than 6,000 students identified by school staff, doctors and others — including those at high risk for hurting themselves or others. Read more at The Texas Tribune.

• At the crossroads: Addressing gun violence as a public health crisis

David J. Skorton, MD, President and CEO – AAMC

The idea that the scourge of shootings is a public health crisis is, increasingly, widely recognized among medical professionals. But over the past three years while the crisis has intensified, our collective response — including that of Congress — has not, whether measured by social services, gun safety, or other legislation. Today, however, I hold out hope that more Americans might be able to see the epidemic of gun violence as a public health challenge. Our national experience with another public health challenge — COVID-19 — may help us find a way forward. Read more from the AAMC statement. Read more from the AAMC statement on gun violence as public health issue >

• Waiting at a Texas Hospital for Children Who Never Arrive

  Rachel Pearson is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the author of “No Apparent Distress.” On May 27, she published her experience following the Uvalde shooting in The New Yorker

At noon, we were sitting around a table together, eating bits of leftover bagels and reviewing plans for kids we hadn’t seen in person yet. At 12:17, my phone rang. It was Dr. Veronica Armijo-Garcia from the pediatric I.C.U. “This call just came in, and I don’t think it’s hit the news yet. We need to get ready for a pediatric mass casualty.” Read more from a University Health hospitalist on Uvalde shooting.