Listening to Survivors' Voices: Addressing Partner Abuse in the Health Care Setting

• NCJ Number: 195688
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 8 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 687-719
• Author(s): Jeanne E. Hathaway; Georgianna Willis; Bonnie Zimmer
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 33 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article focuses on uncovering the factors that lead women to disclose domestic violence incidents to their health care providers.

Abstract

In this study, the authors were concerned with discovering how health care providers could be more instrumental in assisting women who experienced partner abuse. Past research in this area has revealed that victims of partner abuse rarely disclose the abuse to their health care providers. As a result, these victims of violence are left to deal with the abuse on their own because their health care providers are not informed about the abuse and, therefore, cannot make referrals to domestic violence programs. In order to assess how health care providers can better address partner abuse, the authors set out to learn about the conditions that enabled a victim to disclose the abuse to their health care providers. The authors conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews with a convenience sample of 49 clients of a Boston hospital-based domestic violence program. These clients were enrolled in the domestic violence program between January 1997 and November 2000. Results of a content analysis of the interviews revealed that four main factors influenced a victim’s decision to disclose her abuse to her health care provider: (1) the providers’ perceived knowledge of partner abuse, (2) the providers’ interest in helping the patient/victim, (3) how much time the provider took to identify potential abuse and ask pertinent questions, and (4) the perceived confidentiality of the possible disclosure. This study revealed that the relationship a woman has with her health care provider is an important factor in whether she discloses the violence that has been perpetrated against her. The authors suggest that future research should focus on women of other ethnicities, adolescent women, women in same-sex relationships, and women with disabilities in order to gain a more rounded picture of how health care providers may intervene in domestic violence situations. References