NCJ Number
189367
Journal
Sexual Assault Report Volume: 4 Issue: 6 Dated: July/August 2001 Pages: 81,92,93
Date Published
2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The field of violence against women is evolving; this article describes this evolution as reflected in the author's professional development as a psychotherapist who treats women who have experienced violence in their lives.
Abstract
Many women who have been violently abused avoid health care providers, and if they do go, they often will not comply with the advice they have received. This avoidance is often due to the intimate contact that doctors often have with their female patients in the course of examinations and tests. These experiences stimulate the trauma often associated with their previous experiences of violent sexual victimization. As a way to help abuse-survivors receive the health care they need, the author began to train health care providers on how to screen, assess, and refer and/or treat survivors of violence. The training includes information on the effects of violence and how to ask women questions about violence and how to refer them. The author came to appreciate, however, that training individual health care providers does not go far enough. It is also important to train everyone at the health care facility, since all staff members have a potentially critical role in assisting victims of violence. This article concludes with a description of how to create a system for violence-project development, including a list of 18 steps for project development and implementation.