Success reported in creating a domestic violence intervention program
An intervention strategy for intimate partner violence was designed and tested successfully, according to Judy Chang, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
To create the program, investigators interviewed 21 women who had reported a past or current history of domestic violence, Dr. Chang noted. They also talked to nine clinicians and held three focus group discussions with participation by nurses, medical assistants and social work professionals.
"Including patients and providers in the project allowed us to tailor an intervention to meet their needs," said Dr. Chang, who also is an assistant investigator at the Magee-Womens Research Institute. "Patients wanted and used resource information."
Informational materials including posters, brochures and tear-off fliers were composed and made available for distribution to patients. These materials were monitored weekly for six months to determine how many were taken by patients. In addition, investigators noted calls to a domestic abuse hotline.
"After we began, some 43 brochures and 25 tear-off fliers were taken from the clinic every month," said Dr. Chang. "And in the six months after our program, the local women's center got 12 inquiries from women who had heard about the hotline in the obstetrics-gynecology clinic up from just one in nine months. Referrals to social workers went up to 12 a m
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Contact: Michele D. Baum
baumMD@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
25-Mar-2004