Helping Domestic Violence Victims Begin to Heal
To care for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, The Duke Endowment granted more than $9.5 million between 2000 and 2005 to help hospitals respond more effectively to medical needs and forensic exams.
Insights
Four key strategies drove the Endowment's approach to helping hospitals treat victims of domestic violence. We invite others to use these findings as starting points for their own efforts.
- Training medical professionals to screen patients for domestic violence even when signs aren't obvious can help prevent more serious injuries from escalating violence.
- Gaining patients' confidence can be difficult for health care providers. The more confident providers become through training and practice, the more comfortable patients will be answering questions about domestic violence.
- Rather than sending victims to wait for care as people with more life-threatening injuries are seen first, hospitals with specially trained sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) are able to treat victims more quickly and compassionately.
- Having high quality equipment such as cameras and microscopes can help victims receive legal protection from an abuser. When defense attorneys see the quality of evidence collected at the hospitals, they often can convince their clients to work out plea bargains, rather than face trial. Well-trained medical providers can be important assets in legal situations, testifying on behalf of victims, particularly in child abuse cases.
Impact
The domestic violence initiative worked to educate health care providers on identifying and responding to victims; improve the training, skills and equipment needed to collect evidence and treat victims; and improve hospitals' ability to partner with community agencies to impact the community and prevent abuse.
Data collected between 2002 and 2004 showed that through grants from The Duke Endowment, hospitals across the Carolinas:
- Saw an increase in the number of people receiving medical services for domestic assault, a rise credited to health care providers' improved ability to identify warning signs.
- Certified more than 100 specially trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE), who treated more than 900 victims.
- Increased the use of specialized equipment for sexual assault examinations from 52 cases (17 percent) in 2002 to 320 (59 percent) in 2004.
- Improved collaboration with community agencies, with more than 90 percent of victims being referred to community agencies for help.
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