Rochelle Dicker Receives Jefferson Award for Work in Turning Young Offenders Away From Violence

KPIX 5 (CBS/San Francisco) honored Rochelle Dicker, M.D., a trauma surgeon at SFGH, with its Jefferson Award for her work in stemming the epidemic of violent injuries at San Francisco General Hospital through the San Francisco Wraparound Project which she is Director of:

San Francisco General Hospital said a third of the shooting, stabbing and beating victims it treats return to the emergency room, injured from yet another crime. But one doctor has come up with a way to stop the revolving door of violence.

This week’s Jefferson Award winner said there is a teachable moment when a badly injured young offender is open to change.

A gun battle in the Bayview-Hunters Point six years ago changed the life of 24-year-old Joe Drake.

“I was shot five times and stabbed in the same day,” Drake recalled. “I was in a neighborhood fight.”
“Woke up with tubes in my mouth,” he reflected. “I thought my life was over.”

But his new life was just beginning, thanks to trauma surgeon Dr. Rochelle Dicker.

She founded the San Francisco Wraparound Project at the hospital in 2002 to rehabilitate young offenders who end up violence victims over and over again.

“This has to be treated, as is an epidemic,” said Rochelle. She said her case managers try to reach out to the patients after their surgery at a critical time before they leave the hospital.

“There is a time when individuals say, ‘I could’ve been killed. This could’ve been devastating.

However, I am open and vulnerable in this moment to make changes,'” said Rochelle.

In Joe’s case, she started with a bedside talk to encourage him to get engaged in his community.
“And I asked Joe, are you gonna register to vote? He said why would I vote?” said Rochelle.

“She’s just supposed to be taking out my tubes. Why is she involved with wanting to know how I’m voting?” said Joe.

Rochelle set Joe up with a Wraparound case manager................