The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on global governments to adopt the UK's Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention.
Pioneered by Professor Jonathan Shepherd, the model brings agencies together to prevent violence using data collected in emergency departments (EDs) as well as police intelligence.
The head of WHO's Prevention of Violence Unit says the template, which uses A&E data to pinpoint violence hotspots, should be now rolled out worldwide by local and national authorities.
In his foreword to a newly published 2022 report, The Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention, Dr Alexander Butchart notes that whilst the system exemplifies the public health approach to violence prevention, the clear role that hospital emergency departments can play is 'woefully neglected in most parts of the world.'
Dr Butchart adds: "The Cardiff Model [has been] replicated across the United Kingdom, and in cities in Australia, the Netherlands, and the USA, while in Colombia, Jamaica and South Africa local authorities are experimenting with the Cardiff Model as a way of grappling with often sky-high rates of alcohol, gun, and drug-related violence."
But Professor Shepherd, from Cardiff University's Security, Crime and Intelligence Innovation Institute, notes the system he began to develop over 25 years ago has still not been formally implemented across Wales.
