As a health care provider for people in rural areas, you are in a unique position to intervene effectively in cases of domestic violence. You are often told confidential information, including disclosures of domestic violence. As helping professionals, we must also recognize our own misconceptions and
personal history and how that influences our work with victims. Denial that abuse occurs is not only a societal problem, but very often a personal one.
By educating yourself and developing a heightened sensitivity to the issue, you can create an atmosphere of openness that will encourage battered women to come forward and find empowerment to escape the
abuse in their lives. You are a life-saving link in that process, and in rural communities you may be the first person in whom a victim confides.
There IS no typical victim.
ANY woman may be or can become a battered woman.
Many battered women do not know where to turn for help.
While people are more aware of the prevalence of domestic violence, many still avoid dealing with the problem. A victim may fear that if she were to disclose the abuse to a family member, a friend, or clergy, she would be told that the violence is somehow her own fault or that it is her duty to endure it. She may fear that local police still have the attitude that domestic violence is a "family matter". She may fear that the criminal justice system will not hold her batterer accountable in a court of law. She may even fear the response of her own healthcare provider.
Unless a woman presents in the medical setting with obvious injuries from a recent incident, health care providers have no immediate way of knowing that she is a battered woman. For various reasons victims seldom volunteer information about their abuse. The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Emergency Nurses Association, and many other professional associations recommend that healthcare providers routinely screen every woman for domestic violence. Simply asking direct questions related to domestic violence is an effective way of breaking through a victim's isolation by letting her know that you as her primary healthcare provider care about her safety and well being.
Many providers are reluctant to screen for domestic violence primarily because they do not know what to do for the victim once she discloses the abuse. That is why professional organizations recommend that heath care providers work closely with their local domestic violence agency. Advocates can provide education on the issue of domestic violence to medical practitioners and can provide services to the victims whom practitioners identify through screening.
