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Effective Health
Care
In order for clinicians to develop and sustain an appropriate response to domestic violence, they must have the support of the institutions in which they practice. An optimal response to domestic violence necessitates that clinical interventions – such as the primary care practitioner’s diagnosis and treatment -- become part of a coordinated community response. The availability of institutional support, community coordination, designated staff, and incentives for implementation greatly increases the likelihood that screening and intervention will become routine.
At a minimum, every institution or practice should
support individual clinicians in their efforts to incorporate routine screening
and intervention into ongoing practice. Conducting a
training,
adapting a protocol, and working with the domestic violence
advocacy community (see the:
VT Domestic and Sexual Violence
programs contact list) to create a
referral network is one way to start. Domestic Violence Advocates may be
available to provide support and advocacy to your patients on site. When there
are no battered women’s services available in the community, it may be necessary
to develop domestic violence advocacy projects on site. This could mean training
staff, for example medical social workers, within the institution to provide
advocacy as part of their ongoing clinical work. Administrative Support for Clinicians 1. Reminder forms, stickers or stamps to encourage routine inquiry 2. Protocols or algorithms clearly describing appropriate identification, assessment, documentation, intervention, referrals and designated roles within a setting. Click here for: Protocols, Tools and Forms to Download, and Clinical Guidelines. 3. Referral lists in all clinical sites. 4. Pocket cards with distilled protocols and referral numbers Clink here to see more information on the Practice Environment. 5. Articles, manuals, and booklets with more in-depth information about domestic violence (see: Resources and Links for Health Care Practitioners ) 6. Videos to increase understanding of women’s abuse experiences ( See: Education and Training and Resources and Links for Health Care Practitioners ) 7. Posters in clinical areas that remind clinicians what to ask and what to do The above was excerpted from the excellent manual Improving the Health Care Response to Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Providers, by Carole Warshaw, M.D. and Anne L. Ganley, Ph.D., Chapter 4. Available online or as hard copy at the Family Violence Prevention Fund web site (www.endabuse.org; the manual chapter is at www.endabuse.org/programs/healthcare/files/trainersmanual/Chapter4.pdf Click here for a Clinical Assessment Tool adapted from the Delphi Instrument For Hospital-based Domestic Violence Programs (created by Jeff Coben and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ). It can be used to help track and measure a hospital's progress in improving its institutional response to domestic violence. For the original (longer) version go to http://endabuse.org/programs/display.php3?DocID=265 |
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