Doctors and Crime Prevention? What’s the Connection?
When the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council talks about everyone having a role to place in crime prevention, we really do mean EVERYONE, including doctors and all health care providers! Drawing on the recommendations from The Missing Pieces report, an assessment of services and gaps for victims and offenders of interpersonal violence (2010, WRCPC), many sectors in our community have been taking action on the 44 recommendations that were developed. Several of the recommendations addressed the need for screening for abuse in health care settings:
- Begin screening for domestic violence at the triage stage at Grand River Hospital
- Encourage physicians region wide to screen for domestic violence, elder abuse and child abuse and neglect
- Offer more training for teachers about how to recognize and respond to abuse and neglect
- Screen for elder abuse at hospital admission or emergency department visits
To help educate primary care professionals in health care settings about their role in preventing violence, several community partners collaborated to present this webinar on “Screening for Intimate Partner Violence in Health Care Settings”.
You can find the full webinar on our Youtube channel.
This training was led by Dr. Robin Mason, a scientist and academic research expert at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto and Dr. Patricia Mousmanis a community based clinician and trainer with the Ontario College of Family Physicians. In just one hour, they covered:
- the prevalence of abuse and the potential health effects on the victim and children exposed to violence
- a discussion on the prenatal period when women may be more vulnerable to abuse and the potential for serious harm to the mother and her developing fetus are very great.
- the role of health care providers in screening for abuse
- various screening tools including Hits, Insults, Threatens, Screams (HITS), Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST), Partner Violence Screen (PVS), Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) and the Routine Universal Comprehensive Screening (RUCS) Protocol.
- ALPHA Forms for health care professionals providing primary care
- the importance of being aware of and facilitating good relationships with community organizations providing support to people experiencing intimate partner violence
- availability of online education for health care providers on domestic violence. This interactive, case-based education may be accessed free of charge and completed at your pace. CME credits are available. For more information go to www.DVeducation.ca.
Health care providers are key partners in the community in assisting people experiencing domestic violence and their children. Together we can make a difference.
Additional Resources:
What do you want to know about the role of health care providers in screening for personal violence and abuse? Our presenters are happy to answer some more of your questions.
Special thanks to the community partners who collaborated on presenting this webinar – Waterloo Region Sexual Assault/ Domestic Violence Treatment Centre, Region of Waterloo Public Health and Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region and Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council.