Policy & Advocacy

Health Briefing April 7th

National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse Hosts Capitol Hill Briefing

On Thursday, April 7, 2011, the National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse (NHCVA), a collaborative of national professional health associations,held a Capitol Hill briefing to focus attention on the importance of the health impact of lifetime exposure to violence and abuse and the consequences of the abuse that lead to chronic health conditions and health risk behaviors. The Honorary Co-Chairs of the briefing were Senator Tom Harkin, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and Congressman Steven LaTourette.

NHCVA has 25 member organizations and includes leaders from the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Nurses Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, the Academy on Violence and Abuse and Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) spoke and gave her support to utilizing health systems as an important entry points to help victims by preventing more serious abuse and improving the health status of women. She also stated that she would be introducing the Violence Against Women Health Initiative Act of 2011 as an updated version the health title in the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. The Violence Against Women Health Initiative would support partnerships between health providers and violence prevention advocates, education for health providers and research on health interventions.

The expert panel included a variety of leaders in the field and included perspectives on research, programming, and policy.   Each speaker gave their insight into how to prevent and respond to violence and abuse and the need for prevention to be integrated into the national public health agenda:

Jeremy Lazarus, M.D. is a board –certified psychiatrist in private practice in Denver and serves as Speaker of the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates. He spoke about the commitment that AMA to assessing, treating and preventing violence and abuse, and some the recent initiatives that the AMA has taken to support assessment for domestic violence as part of women’s preventive health services coverage. Physicians see firsthand the impact that intimate partner violence has on patients and their families. Dr. Lazarus stated that “they have major role in lessening the prevalence, scope and severity of child maltreatment, intimate partner violence and elder abuse, all of which fall under the rubric of family violence.”

Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D, RN, FANN is the Anna D. Wolf Chair and Professor at John Hopkins University School of Nursing and gave a brief overview of prevalence and health consequences of abuse based on more than 20 years of research.  Dr. Campbell has been internationally recognized for her research achievements and she spoke about the need for an interdisciplinary response to violence in health settings. She also shared what the research shows about how to assess for violence, and the impact health interventions can have on the health and safety of victims of abuse. Download her presentation.

Corinne Graffunder, Ph.D, RN, MPH, is currently the Associate Director of Policy for the Centers for Disease, where she is leading the development of the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. Dr. Graffunder talked about the impact of the Affordable Care Act how the National Prevention and HealthPromotion policy efforts need to include prevention of violence and abuse.  Dr. Graffunder had three points she stressed on the strategy.   It needs to be dynamic, it needs to continue the prevention and the research that supports ending violence and abuse, and it needs to have partners to be successful. An advisory group that was recently appointedwill be essential in helping develop initiatives will represent the vision of the National Prevention Strategy –and hopefully, will include violence prevention. 

Aleisha Langhorne, M.P.H., MHSA, Senior Health Scientist in the Office of Women’s Health at DHHS, gave an overview of the Project Connect: A Coordinated Public Health Initiative on Violence against Women and spoke about how violence prevention and intervention strategies are being integrated into home visitation, adolescent health, and family planning programs within eight states and two tribes as part of this public health program. Download her presentation.

Gloria Terry, President of the Texas Council on Family Violence highlighted their Project Connect initiative in Texas that partners domestic and sexual violence advocates with the state health agencies to improve reproductive and maternal child health outcomes. She relayed a heart-felt story of a woman named Miranda who was a victim of intimate partner violence, and her eight children who were exposed to the abuse for over a decade.Ms. Terry reflected that if Mirandawould have received services fromhome visitors trained to identify and help women, she could have been helpedearlier. Now, as a result of Project Connect, they are training home visitors and reproductive health providers to do just that. Ms. Terry emphasized that Project Connect does and has worked, but that they need resources and ongoing partnerships to sustain the work.

Tasneem Ismailji, M.D., M.P.H., the incoming President of the Academy on Violence and Abuse, shared her personal experiences of working as a pediatrician with children exposed to violence and abuse. She talked about how unprepared she was and how other health professionals are still not educated to handle domestic violence victims and the need to train health providers on how to identify and help survivors early. Dr. Ismailji also talked about the Academy of Pediatrics support for child abuse prevention and the clear need for on going research on health impact in health interventions.

Lisa James, Health Program Director at the Family Violence Prevention Fund, acted as moderator and concluded the program with thanking the speakers for raising awareness about the connection between violence across the lifespan and link to chronic health issues. She asked that violence prevention be part of national public health prevention initiatives, and urged federal policymakers to continue supporting health programs that address violence such as Project Connect and the National Childhood Stress Network. 

For additional Information, please contact Sally Schaeffer at Futures Without Violence, 202-595-7384, or sschaeffer@futureswithoutviolence.org

Materials from the Event:

Additional Resources: