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NEWS FROM
THE HOMEFRONT |
FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION FUND |
| WINTER 1999/2000 |
Contents |
![[Culteral Considerations cover]](jcultural.jpg)
Guidebook Outlines Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence Cases
Every day, hundreds of victims of domestic violence turn to the criminal justice system for protection. Many of these victims - and their perpetrators - have issues of culture that can affect how they are perceived and treated by the court; that is, they are viewed through a lens of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, language, sexual orientation, and other identifying designations. The Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) has just published Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence Cases: A National Judges Benchbook, written by attorney Maria D. Ramos, to help judges address these factors in a conscious way.
"The judge sets the tone in the courtroom and makes the most important decisions affecting the lives of the victim, perpetrator, and children," says FVPF Judicial Project Manager and benchbook editor Michael Runner.
According to benchbook author Ramos, "Any person who comes before you is going to provoke certain assumptions, whether you assume they are just like you because of how they look, or you assume they are different." She adds, "This book isn't an encyclopedia of diversity, where a judge can just flip to a page about a certain culture. It's about giving judges an opportunity to look at what biases they bring to the bench, and work on that from the inside out."
Funded by the State Justice Institute (SJI), Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence Cases summarizes relevant criminal and civil law and guides judges in handling domestic violence cases. It also provides sample checklists and practice tools to help judges work towards cultural competence. An advisory committee of judges, multicultural experts and domestic violence advocates from around the country helped design the content, reviewed drafts of the book, and pilot tested it before publication. The book was recently nominated by the State Justice Institute for the annual Howell Heflin Award, given to SJI-supported projects that have a high likelihood of significantly improving the quality of justice in state courts across the nation.
The 300-page benchbook addresses cultural issues in a number of domestic violence contexts, including sentencing of a domestic violence perpetrator, child custody and visitation decisions, state or tribal court jurisdictional issues under the Indian Child Welfare Act, immigration issues, and language and other barriers that can inhibit equal access to the courts.
Although designed primarily for judges, the benchbook can also guide court administrators, domestic violence advocates, attorneys and others on how cultural and domestic violence issues intersect in the courtroom.
To order Cultural Considerations in Domestic Violence Cases: A National Judges Benchbook ($47.00 plus shipping and handling), or other FVPF resources, please call our Publications Line at (415) 252-8089, or see our online catalog.
For Your Health:
Training Health Care Providers to Screen their Patients
By Esta Soler
Each day, women seek health care as a direct or indirect result of abuse. Doctors and nurses see their bumps, bruises and broken bones. Domestic violence contributes to chronic health problems and interferes with the management of illnesses. But too many health care providers still lack the training, information and tools to do all that they can to treat the root cause of these injuries.
While the numbers of patients facing abuse are high, the number of doctors who screen for abuse is disappointingly low: a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that less than 10% of primary care physicians routinely screen for abuse during periodic checkups. Because virtually every woman interacts with the health care system at some point in her life, doctors and nurses can make a tremendous difference to battered women. In fact, a doctor or nurse may be the first and only person to intervene before further injuries occur. Health care administrators and providers need to recognize that screening for domestic violence and giving women information, treatment and referrals is essential to effective health care.
To help the health care community build an effective response to abuse, the FVPF is pleased to announce the publication of Preventing Domestic Violence: Clinical Guidelines on Routine Screening. This resource book, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides specific guidelines to help providers in primary care, ob-gyn, family planning, emergency care, mental health and inpatient settings screen effectively for abuse. On October 14th, dozens of hospitals, clinics and health care facilities across the country used the new materials as the basis for their participation in the first annual Health Care Providers Respond to Domestic Violence Day. The theme of this year's Day was "Screening to Prevent Abuse." That day, the FVPF also launched a new campaign through which women can send postcards to their doctors that urge them to screen their patients for abuse.
On October 13-14, 2000, the FVPF's National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence will host the National Conference on Health Care and Domestic Violence in San Francisco in partnership with leading national medical and health associations. The conference is an opportunity for health care professionals, as well as advocates who are interested in the medical and health aspects of abuse, to meet and learn from each other.
The movement to recognize domestic violence as a preventable health issue is gaining acceptance from the medical community: health care leaders such as the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Nurses Association have begun to join battered women's advocates in saying publicly that domestic violence is an epidemic that requires a stronger response.
Every day in every community in this country, battered women seek health care. Doctors and nurses take women's blood pressure, measure their cholesterol, and treat their injuries without ever exploring whether they face violence in their homes. Each time that happens, we are failing - and our entire society pays the price.
The FVPF's screening tools and consumer postcard can be found online at www.fvpf.org/health/screening.html or obtained through the National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence by calling, toll-free, 1-888-Rx-ABUSE.
Asian Institute on Domestic Violence Kicks Off with Conference in Chicago
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| Dozens of advocates from across the country gathered to address the needs and interests of Asian Americans in the domestic violence movement. |
This August 28th, the Asian Institute on Domestic Violence held its first national meeting in Chicago, the day before The Next Millennium Conference: Ending Domestic Violence began in the same city. More than 80 participants attended the meeting, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"It was very exciting for all of us," says Leni Marin, Associate Director of the FVPF and Institute planning committee member. "It brought together a broad range of advocates, activists, service providers, researchers and people working on policy issues. They came from all over the country."
The Institute formed several committees that will tackle prioritized action plans: Research, Policy and Funding, Community Intervention, and Public Education/Prevention. At the conference, affinity groups were formed around issues such as same sex abuse, ethnic identities, immigration, generational and regional issues, and more.
Such a group is needed, says Darrell Kundargi, FVPF Operations Coordinator and Institute planning committee member, because "there are issues around domestic violence that are specific to Asian Americans. Historically, many of these issues haven't been addressed by the mainstream domestic violence movement. That's one of the reasons this conference was so timely and important - we finally have a national movement of Asians, for Asians, to focus the work and let people know what resources are out there, foster networking, and push the response to Asian-specific domestic violence to a more complete level of service provision."
Sujata Warrier, director of the Health Care Bureau of the New York Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Institute planning committee member, agrees. "We were surprised and overwhelmed by the response to the Institute," she says. "It was very clear that those who attended the conference got a lot out of it. People felt a real investment in the issue. The response convinced us we are not imagining this need, and that we need to break the isolation and make these national concerns."
"It is essential to focus on our issues as immigrant communities and as communities of color," says Marin, "because of racism in this country and because we have diverse cultural issues. The Institute is a much needed vehicle to enrich the domestic violence movement at large."
Speaking Up Airs on PBS Stations Around the Nation
What can you do if you hear sounds of violence coming from your neighbor's apartment? How do you approach a friend or family member whom you suspect is in an abusive situation? What steps can we all take to speak up against domestic violence? Speaking Up: Ending Domestic Violence in Our Communities, a dramatic new program produced by the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), answers these questions and provides information on what communities can do to prevent domestic violence. It began airing on public television stations around the country in October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The program includes dramatic vignettes and discussion from experts and survivors of abuse, and provides concerned neighbors, friends, co-workers and family members with safe and easy ways to respond to, and help prevent, abuse. Speaking Up is being distributed for broadcast by American Public Television and was made possible by a generous grant from The Allstate Foundation.
Among the stations that will air the program are KTEH-TV in San Jose, CA; WDCN-TV in Nashville, TN; WDSE-TV in Duluth, MN; WFYI-TV in Indianapolis, IN; WNMU-TV in Marquette, MI; and WYCC in Chicago, IL.
To order a copy of Speaking Up ($10.00 plus shipping and handling), call the FVPF Publications Line at (415) 252-8089 or see the online catalog.
Ten State Project
Health Care Providers in Program Create -
and Institutionalize - Real Change
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| Training participants including Gail McEwan from WISE in Lebanon, NH (second from left) and members of the Alice Peck Day Hospital team brainstormed ways to improve their state's health care system response to domestic violence. |
In Iowa, an affluent woman well-known in her community went to the doctor for a routine check up. Because the doctor treating her had just returned from an extensive training on screening, documenting and treating domestic violence and had recently begun asking all his patients about abuse and not just those he suspected were victims, he asked the woman if anyone was hurting her at home. To his surprise, the patient answered "Yes." She received help and referrals to services before she left the office, and the doctor was convinced of the value of his new policy. "I never would have screened her before the training," he said.
It's stories like this one that Lisa James loves to hear. James coordinates the FVPF's Ten State Program, which works intensively in 10 states to implement health policy reform, train providers on domestic violence, and develop leadership on the issue of domestic violence. Funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the four-year project will train more than 1,000 health care providers from 150 facilities on screening for domestic violence, documentation, assessment, intervention and referral - how to conduct it as well as how to institutionalize it.
The project also includes a training of trainers in each of the participating states. "The people we train will go back and train their peers," says James, "so that exponentially, by the end of the project, more than 10,000 providers will have been trained."
"We have an expansive group of health care providers working to change their facilities" response to domestic violence," she says, "as well as a cadre of volunteer leadership teams in each state that are working on training, policy, public education, and providing on-going technical assistance on the clinical level to the 15 facilities in their state that were trained."
Leadership teams in each state consist of members as diverse as domestic violence advocates and interested clinicians, two state secretaries of health, an attorney general, and the president-elect of a state medical society. "These are dedicated and influential teams," says James, "capable of making real change."
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| Texas, along with Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, are all participants in the Ten State Project. |
"We provided them with comprehensive materials and extensive technical assistance," says James. "But the leadership teams are responsible for organizing their states and reforming their systems."
And organize they did. While all the health initiative participants achieved the program goals that were expected of them, many were so enthused by the training and its results that they went far beyond the initial program requirements.
Other health initiative participants have held brown bag lunches and community forums, conducted multiple stages of training, and more.
"This work is incredibly important," says FVPF Executive Director Esta Soler. "Many domestic violence victims are not comfortable going to shelters. Yet, they visit their health care providers for both routine and emergency care. When health care providers take time to ask patients a few simple questions about abuse, they save lives."
Grace Mattern, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and part of the leadership team that worked to train providers in all hospitals in that state, says that "the training was a great model because it's easily replicable. We're going to train community and family planning clinics next, and then managed care and specialty providers, especially those who see large populations of women. Our goal," she says, "is to saturate the state."
Roberta Feltes, RN, Assistant Director of Clinical Support Services at the Southwest Medical Associates in Nevada, says her experience with the 10 State Program has been "very valuable and enlightening." Before undergoing training, she says, the physicians in her 10-building hospital "certainly saw abuse, but they lacked direction on how to address it. They might suspect it, but they wouldn't ask the question. Now our intake nurses ask the initial question of every patient over 18, and a doctor will follow up if the patient says yes. The physician will determine if there is an immediate need, or refer her to a social worker and community agencies."
Since the policies were instituted in March, Feltes says, the local domestic violence agency reported that 12 women who sought help said that they were referred by Southwest Medical. "It's interesting," says Feltes. "We leave information in every exam room, and the little tear-off sheets are missing all the time. I'd say for all those who answer 'yes,' a couple hundred more take the referral numbers."
"It really inspires me to see how much work these leadership teams and trained health care providers have been doing," says James. "The program is really working - providers are screening, questions about abuse are on their forms, the facilities are making institutional changes to support ongoing interventions. Many clinic teams have created training plans for years to come, so that ripple effect is just beginning. As a result of this effort," she adds, "responding to domestic violence is becoming part of routine health service delivery."
Leadership teams are also expanding their focus beyond training to look at new public policy and advocacy approaches to improve the health care response to domestic violence. Says Mattern, "We're trying to change a whole system that's entrenched, but we're in it for the long haul and we're going to do it."
KENYA - Hundreds of men from Nairobi took part in an unprecedented march to speak out against violence against women. Rev. Timothy Njoya, the conveyor of the march said, "We are here to assert men's commitment to eradicate the customs, beliefs and attitudes that influence men to violate women and mete out violence against them."
TOKYO - The Tokyo City government has announced plans to set up a fund to help victims of sexual harassment and domestic violence. The government will provide up to $4,300 to pay a victim's legal fees. If they win, victims will pay back the money from the compensation or damages they receive, and this money is used to assist future victims.
NEW YORK - In an unprecedented ruling, a Brooklyn judge has allowed John Pickett's defense attorney to use the "battered wife syndrome" to support his case that Pickett killed his abusive boyfriend in self-defense. Pickett claims that his live-in partner, John Stagno, was extremely controlling and had repeatedly threatened him. On December 5, 1997, when Pickett told Stagno he wanted to end their relationship, Stagno threatened him with a knife and a bottle. Pickett fought back and fatally stabbed Stagno.
WASHINGTON DC - Popular romance novelist Nancy Richards-Akers was murdered by her estranged husband, Jeremy Akers, on June 5. Akers then killed himself. Akers shot Richards-Akers outside of his house, while their two young children watched from inside. Letters that Richards-Akers earlier wrote to friends detail the domestic violence she had suffered. In one letter, Richards-Akers wrote that her husband had threatened to kill her and had "practiced a few times" in front of the children. As a result of this and two other domestic violence homicides of members of Romance Writers of America, the organization is launching a domestic violence project to raise awareness and to fundraise for domestic violence shelters and agencies. The Heart of Texas chapter of the association is selling buttons that read, "Stop the Terror! Romance Writers Speak Out Against Domestic Violence."
MARYLAND - The newly-crowned Miss Maryland, Keri Schrader, plans an education campaign against domestic violence as her platform for the year of her reign. Schrader is a third-year law student at Georgetown University who volunteers in the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office, helping lawyers prosecute misdemeanor domestic violence cases. Schrader was chosen third runner-up in the Miss America Pageant, televised on ABC on September 18.
CONNECTICUT - The Women's Center of Southeastern Connecticut, a transitional women's program in New London, has created an innovative domestic violence education and screening program designed to help battered women. The program educates hairdressers about domestic violence, trains them to recognize signs of physical abuse, and advises them on how to discuss domestic violence with clients who are potential victims. Information on domestic violence and resources for help are available to clients in the salons.
WESTERN REGION - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over nine western states and the Pacific trust territories, ruled that law enforcement agencies must give 911 calls reporting domestic violence equal priority with calls reporting other emergencies. The ruling stems from the murder of Denise Navarro, who was killed by her estranged husband shortly after Navarro called 911 to warn them that her husband was coming to kill her. The 911 dispatcher did not send police because Navarro's husband was not yet at her house at the time of the call. In 1990, Navarro's children sued Los Angeles County, alleging, among other claims, that Navarro had been denied equal protection of the law.
Today, we are closer to our goal of eliminating domestic violence because the Family Violence Prevention Fund continues to innovate and improve education and prevention efforts. Through community organizing, institutional change, advances in public education, and tireless advocacy at the state and federal levels, the FVPF has raised public awareness and citizen involvement dramatically. The generosity and foresight of our supporters has made this progress possible.
Every contribution made to the FVPF, regardless of its size, brings us one step closer to our goal of a world free of violence against women and children. Please consider an outright gift, a gift of stock of securities, and/or a planned gift to the FVPF.
Thank you for all you do.
For more information about our programs and how you can help, call the Family Violence Prevention Fund at (415) 252-8900.
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| Richard North Patterson talks with Amy Tan at the FVPF Development Committee reception at his San Francisco Home. |
Board Activities
New Development Committee Hosts Event
If you've been reading the San Francisco Chronicle social column, you already know about the FVPF's latest board activity: the creation of our new Development Committee, chaired by Laurie Patterson, wife of board member and best-selling author Richard North Patterson. In May, Laurie and Richard opened their home for a reception to prospective donors. Many San Francisco notables were in attendance, including former KGO news anchor Anna Chavez and her husband Gene Eidenberg; Ambassador to Luxembourg Jim Hormel and his partner Tim Wu; Robert Allen, UC Berkeley professor and author of The Port Chicago Mutiny (and husband of FVPF Managing Director Janet Carter); best-selling author Amy Tan; and others. Chronicle social columnist Pat Steger also attended, and praised the event in her popular column, "The Scene."
"We held the event to raise awareness about domestic violence," says FVPF Executive Director Esta Soler. "We wanted to educate people about the work that we do, and let them know how they can help support the critical programming of the Family Violence Prevention Fund."
Richard North Patterson, author of Eyes of a Child and other works of fiction that touch on themes of domestic violence, spoke to the group about why he and his wife support the organization. Board member Jamie Kalven read from his recently published book, Working with Available Light, and Soler and Allen addressed the impact of domestic violence on children.
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| Committee member Cordelia Trueger chats with event host and committee chair Laurie Patterson. |
"The majority of people who came knew very little about the FVPF" says Committee Chair Laurie Patterson. "It was a nice first step to introduce the organization to our friends and the community. We asked some of our friends to be on the event's honorary advisory committee, and they were all very willing to help." Author Danielle Steele, local philanthropist Roselyn Swig, news anchor Kate Kelly and her husband Tom Klein joined Hormel, Chavez and others on the honorary committee.
"Our goal on the development committee," says Laurie Patterson, "is to raise awareness on a person-to-person level, to create a dialogue on the issue. It's impossible to grow up in this society without being touched by domestic violence. Since I've been speaking about the issue, people have shared personal experiences with me, and it makes me feel good that they feel comfortable talking about it. It's a very difficult topic," she adds, "and one that is not easy to talk about. But both Ric and I feel that domestic violence permeates society and perpetuates itself, and it won't go away unless we do something about it."
New Health Care Resource Materials Available
Two new resource packets are available for health care providers and domestic violence advocates. The first, Workplace Response to Domestic Violence in Health Care Organizations, is a comprehensive packet to help hospital administrators improve their response to their employees who face domestic abuse. The packet includes:
Also available is Responding to Domestic Violence in Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, and Bisexual (LGTB) Communities. The packet is designed to educate health care providers and advocates on the issue of LGTB domestic violence, and to help practitioners better identify and respond to LGTB victims in their practices. The packet includes:
The materials were prepared by a national committee of experts in the field, convened by the FVPF's National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence.
To obtain either of the free packets, call the National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence toll-free at 1-888-Rx-ABUSE, or request them online.
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