NCJ Number
195276
Editor(s)
Felicia Cohn,
Marla E. Salmon,
John D. Stobo
Date Published
2002
Length
28 pages
Annotation
At the request of the U.S. Congress and with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies established a multidisciplinary committee to examine what is currently known about the training needs of health professionals to respond to family violence; this is the executive summary of the committee's report.
Abstract
The committee's conclusions and recommendations address two major concerns: resources and coordination for education research and curricular development to expand the knowledge base and inform policy and practice, and curricular content and teaching strategies. Regarding education research and curricular development, the committee concludes that the impact of family violence on society and the health care system has not been adequately studied or documented; methodological problems have resulted in inconsistent and unclear evidence about its magnitude and severity; funding for research, education development and testing, and curricular evaluation on family violence is fragmented; and information about funding sources is not systematically available. The committee recommends that the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services establish new multidisciplinary education and research centers with the goal of advancing scholarship and practice in family violence. The ultimate goal of these centers will be to develop training programs based on sound scientific evidence that prepare health professionals to respond to family violence. Regarding curricular content and teaching strategies, the committee concludes that there are few scientific underpinnings to support the content, instructional methodologies, or extent of education now being provided in training programs. Three recommendations pertain to incentives and support for evaluating curricula on family violence for health professionals; professional associations' guidance for training; and the involvement of health care delivery systems in the development, testing, and evaluation of innovative training models or programs.