Newswise — Bethesda, Md. – The Uniformed Services University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress podcast, “Let’s Talk About Your Guns,” which offers practical and non-judgmental ways to have conversations about safe firearm storage in tough situations, has received a Telly Award this week for its impactful content.
The annual Telly Awards showcase the best work created by some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers around the world. There were more than 12,000 entries from 50 states and five continents, with this year being a decade-high number of entries. The CSTS podcast, produced by Podville, was honored with the Bronze in the General-Branded Content category.
“We are so proud of this podcast and its potential to move people toward positive conversations about safety at home,” said Dr. James West, a CSTS scientist who led the podcast’s creation. “We want everyone to feel motivated and empowered to talk to people in their lives about storing firearms safely and to reduce suicide by putting time and space between an impulsive thought and a fatal act.”
The podcast features eight episodes and is available on CSTS’s website as well as YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify, and Stitcher. Each episode focuses on various aspects of gun safety. About 40 percent of Americans have a gun at home, and this series is designed to unpack real-life scenarios such as guns and suicide, dementia, children, and health care workers. Prevention starts with having these conversations about how to put barriers and time between a suicidal impulse and a fatal act, said West, who also hosts the podcast.
The podcast also features an episode on dementia and how to navigate aging, gun ownership, and safety with expert advice from emergency room physician and firearm safety researcher Dr. Emmy Betz from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. This episode provides practical advice for having tough conversations with loved ones, and ideas on how to plan ahead. Another episode discusses gun safety in times of crisis and what to say to a loved one when you’re worried about their access to guns, featuring Dr. Mike Anestis, a suicide and gun safety expert and executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University, who talks about alternative storage plans in times of crisis.
The CSTS podcast is also part of the center's efforts to understand and prevent suicide, and is informed by the Army STARRS study (Study to Address Risk and Resilience in Service Members). To learn more about STARRS, led by CSTS, visit https://starrs-ls.org/#/. To learn more about the “Let’s Talk About Your Guns” podcast and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, visit https://www.cstsonline.org/suicide-prevention-program/podcasts.
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About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences and public health committed to excellence in research. The University's research program covers a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.
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