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Letting Compassion Open the Door: Battered Women's Disclosure to Medical Providers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Heidi M. Bauer  and
Michael A. Rodriguez
Heidi M. Bauer
Affiliation:
A graduate of the Health and Medical Sciences Program, University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a third-year medical student at the University of California, San Francisco.
Michael A. Rodriguez
Affiliation:
Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, University of California, San Francisco.
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Extract

Domestic violence is an important social problem that strongly impacts the healthcare system. It is estimated that two to four million women are physically abused each year by their husbands, ex-husbands, or boyfriends. Many of these abused women enter the medical system as patients with physical injuries, somatic symptoms, or psychiatric problems. These patients represent a large proportion of women patients in a variety of clinical settings: 22–35% of women presenting to emergency departments, up to 37% of obstetric patients, and over 25% of women seeking primary care. Despite the significant health implications of marital abuse, healthcare providers often fail to identify and treat this problem when signs are present.

Type
Special Section: Compassion: What Does It Really Mean?
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , Fall 1995 , pp. 459 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

Notes

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