FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct 6, 2008
CONTACT Luci Manning
202/371-1999

From Kansas to Canada, Hospitals & Clinics to Join ‘Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day 2008’

Events Encourage Providers to Assess Patients for Violence, Aid Victims & Address Lifelong Health Consequences of Abuse.

San Francisco - Hospitals, clinics, medical students and educators around the nation will hold activities this week and throughout October to encourage health care providers to routinely assess patients for domestic violence. October 8 is the tenth annual Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day (HCADV Day), organized by the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF). Educational sessions by, and for, the health care community will continue throughout October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

For the fourth year, the American Medical Students Association (AMSA) is partnering with the FVPF to organize medical school campuses nationwide around this issue.

This year the American Medical Association and the AMA Alliance, a network of physicians and physicians’ spouses, also are joining the FVPF to strengthen the health care response to violence. The American Medical Association is offering free resources to health care providers at www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/20012.html. The AMA has sent materials directly to its members and is publicizing the day in EVoice, an electronic journal that reaches all members. The AMA Alliance is hosting a public event in Chicago to encourage providers to identify and support victims – as part of HCADV Day and the Stop America’s Violence Everywhere Program.

“Doctors, nurses and other health care providers can do a tremendous amount to help victims of domestic, dating and sexual violence, but too often fail to do so because they haven’t been trained to assess patients for abuse,” said FVPF President Esta Soler. “Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day helps improve the health care system’s response to violence by giving medical professionals the information and support they need to help victims and their children.”

Women often sustain injuries from domestic, dating and sexual violence, but it also can harm them in other ways. Physical and psychological abuse are linked to a range of health problems including: arthritis; chronic neck, back and pelvic pain; sexually transmitted infections (including HIV/AIDS); complications during pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy; substance abuse; migraine and other headaches; ulcers; and chronic irritable bowel syndrome.

Among the many Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day activities set for today and later this month:

  • Arizona: Northwest Medical Center, The Women’s Center, in Tucson is holding four “Lunch and Learn” trainings – each addressing different aspects of domestic violence. The trainings are focusing on safety options for women and children, Victim Witness services, cross cultural domestic violence issues with a focus on Native Americans, effects of domestic violence on children, and domestic violence routine assessment techniques. On HCADV Day, eight tables on the Northwest Medical Center campus will be set up with educational materials, and staff members will answer questions.
  • California: Feather River Tribal Health in Oroville is collaborating with Catalyst, a local domestic violence agency/shelter, for a Domestic Violence Art Gala. Local artists and women will display their works. The women also are doing a Mask project that is open to the community. At the clinic, there will be a ‘wear purple’ day and educational fliers, and a pamphlet with a personal story will be available. Experts will spend three hours on the radio to raise awareness and educate the community about programs and services.
  • Kansas: Catholic Charities Harbor House in Wichita is distributing posters, brochures, and candy jars with Domestic Violence Awareness Month and HCADV Day messages to each department in a local hospital. All throughout the year, staff members will be dropping by and refilling the jars to continue the education. There also will be a table in the cafeteria with information on local resources and how domestic violence affects victims’ health.
  • New Mexico/Navajo Nation: Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Health Center in the eastern part of Navajo Nation has silhouettes/silent witnesses in its waiting area throughout October. They are dressed in traditional Navajo attire, and have signs such as, "You see the bruises, yet you didn't ask if I was okay." The clinic is displaying flyers for local crisis centers with detachable tabs in its bathrooms. In triage, all patients are assessed for partner violence. In coordination with the Northern Navajo Medical Center medical social workers, the Clinic will promote awareness at the 97th Annual Northern Navajo (Shiprock) Fair, which attracts 20,000 Navajo people. They will display silhouettes and banners in the rodeo arena, hand out buttons and bumper stickers, and hold a candlelight vigil. Two social workers will lead the grand entry on their horses, and cowboys are asked to wear purple that night.
  • Pennsylvania: The Domestic Abuse Project in Media is holding a “Bulletin Board in a Bag” event throughout Delaware County. Advocates are delivering professional literature, including posters, brochures, hotline cards, power-and-control wheels, statistics, purple ribbons and more, in a bag to private medical offices so staff members have everything they need to build a display for HCADV and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
  • Ontario: The Regional Sexual & Domestic Assault Treatment Centre at the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital is hosting a “lunch & learn” and “meet & greet” so that community partners and staff members can get information about the hospitals’ services. The lunch event also emphasizes the impact domestic violence has on health and how patients can get assistance.

    • “Domestic violence can have immediate health consequences through injury, but it also can cause life-threatening conditions that affect survivors throughout their lives,” said FVPF Health Director Lisa James. “We aren’t doing all we should to help victims because too many health professionals don’t ask patients if they are experiencing abuse in their relationships. Providers routinely assess patients for potentially deadly conditions like high blood pressure, and for dangerous behaviors like smoking, but few take the time to ask about violence. We aim to change that.”

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 1,200 deaths and two million injuries to women from intimate partner violence each year. Nearly one in four women reports experiencing violence by a current or former spouse or boyfriend sometime in her life. The health care cost of intimate partner violence, physical assault and stalking totals $5.8 billion each year, according to the CDC. Nearly $4.1 billion is for direct medical and mental health care services.

    Routine assessment materials from the FVPF’s National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence are available to health care providers. For more than a decade, the National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence has supported health care practitioners, administrators and systems, domestic violence experts, survivors, and policy makers as they improve health care’s response to domestic violence. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Center supports leaders in the field through groundbreaking model professional, education and response programs, cutting-edge advocacy and sophisticated technical assistance. Free materials, including national consensus guidelines and model protocols for responding to domestic violence, are available through the toll-free number, 1-888-RX-ABUSE or 1-800-595-4889 (TTY), or by visiting the FVPF’s web site, www.endabuse.org/health.

    The National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence develops educational resources, training materials and model protocols on domestic violence and routine assessment to help health care providers better serve battered women. The Health Resource Center provides critical information to tens of thousands of health care providers, institutions, domestic violence service providers, government agencies, researchers and policy makers each year.

    The Family Violence Prevention Fund works to end violence against women and children around the world, because everyone has the right to live free of violence. More information is available at www.endabuse.org.

    NOTE: More information on Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day 2008 is available at www.endabuse.org/hcadvd.

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