Domestic violence against women is an "epidemic and ... a public health issue," the medical officer of health for Ontario's London-Middlesex region says. And Dr. Graham Pollett has responded by establishing a Task Force on the Health Effects of Woman Abuse, which has brought together physicians, lawyers, the police and other professionals in a search for solutions.
Statistics indicate that 1 in 4 Canadian women has been abused by her partner and that 30% of women who seek emergency room treatment for traumatic injuries received the injuries through domestic violence. A recent report from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public I Health found that many women have health problems because of violence. The researchers synthesized information from more than 500 independent surveys worldwide and found that these women are at higher risk for chronic pain, drug and alcohol abuse, depression and suicide attempts. London's task force "is a natural extension of what we do in public health," says Pollett. "The issue can't wait any longer."
The Task Force is chaired by Marion Boyd, a former Ontario attorney general who held several cabinet positions when the New Democrats were in power from 1990 to 1995. She is also past director of London's Battered Women's Advocacy Centre.
London has pioneered numerous domestic-violence initiatives over the past 3 decades, making it the "obvious place" for the task force, says Boyd, who thinks there is a gap in the city's highly integrated network of services for abused women. Physicians and emergency room personnel are usually responsive when physical symptoms of domestic abuse are observed, says Boyd, but the patients are often referred solely to other physicians and not to specialist agencies as well. The group aims to improve links between health care and community services and to develop a universal woman-abuse screening tool for physicians. This would encompass a series of questions to help physicians identify abuse early. Because physicians are busy, Boyd wants "to make sure this is a user-friendly tool for them."
Although the task force's focus is local, Boyd sees potential for its model and outcomes to be adopted across the country.