Did you know that one in four women and one in fourteen men will experience physical domestic violence in their lifetime according to the Institute of Medicine?
At Kaiser Permanente, we believe everyone deserves a safe and healthy relationship, and we’ve been actively working on behalf of victims of family violence for more than a decade. We understand it’s difficult to talk about violence suffered at the hands of a family member or intimate partner. That’s why our physicians and health care teams take the initiative to identify domestic abuse, providing referrals and resources to help end the violence.
In 1998, we instituted the Family Violence Prevention Program in Northern California, the first of its kind at any medical institution. Today, the program is in every Kaiser Permanente facility throughout the nation, including Orange County. It is nationally recognized as one of the most comprehensive responses to domestic violence in the country by any health system.
Since implementation of the program in Orange County, identification of our members affected by domestic violence has increased substantially. Knowing what our members are experiencing allows our clinicians to provide them with the help needed to change their situation. This increase in identification is taking place in regular office visits with their ob-gyn or primary care physician, rather than in the emergency department, which suggests we are helping people before more serious injury occurs.
Our four-part model of success
- Creating a supportive environment, where employees and members will feel safe
reaching out and seeking help.
- Training physicians and health care team members appropriately, so they understand
how to inquire about domestic violence and even more importantly, how to respond.
- Providing on-site resources, including experts in behavioral medicine, mental health
and social services, so that people who need help can get it, when and where they
need it.
- And the fourth component of our model, without which we could not operate – is
connecting with community groups like Human Options- so that those experiencing
domestic violence can obtain the crucial services that organizations like theirs provide.
Helping our communities
Human Options provides a safe haven with life changing programs to help abused women, their children and families rebuild their lives and works with the community to break the cycle of domestic violence. So when Kaiser Permanente had the opportunity to partner with them, there was no hesitation. Through our partnership, we have developed a screening program in our ob-gyn offices that provides early intervention for our members experiencing domestic violence during pregnancy, a very dangerous time for both mother and unborn child. Human Options also provides on-going training to our staff and providers in raising awareness and identifying the signs of family violence.
Kaiser Permanente is proud to be a leader in addressing the problems of family violence. In partnership with Human Options we have been able to develop programs that work. It’s just another example of how we’re caring for the total health of our members’ mind, body, and spirit.
