Health professionals have a role to play in the fight against violence against women
A public health emergency
Breaking the taboo of violence against women
sensitize health professionals to screening and support for women victims of violence
Authors: [ 1]
Cécile Morvant - hospital doctor, emergency department, CH Aubenas (07) Dr. Gilles
Lazimi - GP, Municipal Health Centre, Romainville (93) Dr. Emmanuelle Piet
- doctor of Mother and Child Protection, Bondy (93)
Dr. Gerard Lopez - psychiatrist, Paris (75) Dr. Laura
Vanwassenhove - GP, Saint John of Boiseau (44)
Sign the online petition: http://www.lescentresdesante.com/article58.html
-------------------- -------------------------------------------------- ----------
Violence against women is also a public health emergency
Violence against women is not a private matter. We must lift the taboo. These are crimes and crimes must be punished by law, which too many women are still victims, and which result, numerous health problems and even death. In our country every two days, a woman dies under the blows of his spouse or former spouse. This situation longer be tolerated.
As citizens and as physicians we have to detect these victims, women and children as witnesses, to offer them appropriate care and practice and quality medicine. As citizens and as physicians, we must put our skills to help victims, to improve our practices and to train ourselves to better accommodate and support them.
must the authorities and institutions are available to health professionals with resources and tools for improving the management of these patients. We
health actors, we mobilize for provide effective assistance in our field and collaborate with all other professionals already invested in the hospitality and support for victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. We
players in the field, call out the authorities and institutions so that they finally put in place concrete and practical measures for the training of health professionals.
We urge that the recommendations of the report of Professor Henrion (2001) Violence and Plan (2005) are effective and then we kind of impact ads and rhetoric.
A more worrying situation
Domestic violence, sexual violence, violence at work, is a process in which a person uses force or coercion to promote relations of domination and hierarchy. Physical, psychological, sexual and economic relations are all means used by the attacker to establish permanent control over the victim. In the vast majority of cases the victims are women. The use of violence has only one objective: control and domination of another. The attacker uses all forms of violence necessary to establish this relationship of domination. The victim is held in the grip of the aggressor, physically and socially isolated, destroyed physically and psychologically. Fear is the daily lot of these women, shame and guilt they feel led them to be silent and suffer even more violence. These vulnerable people remain isolated and insufficiently aware of the possible remedies. The socio-medical professionals, police and judiciary do not provide the support they should. Associations aid and support are insufficient and do not have sufficient means.
More than two million women are victims:
The National Survey on Violence Against Women in France, made in 2000 at the initiative of the State Secretariat for Women's Rights, has estimated that scourge. Over the past 12 months among the 6970 women surveyed, aged 20 to 59 years, residing in France and living outside institutions:
10% were experiencing domestic violence;
1.2% of women were victims of rape, which reduced the population of women is no less relevant than 48 000 women;
8.5% of women claim to be victims of insults and threats at work, 4% of bullying (which signs the multiplicity and intensity facts).
Death, the ultimate outcome violence:
The national census of deaths which occurred between the couple in 2003 and 2004 (survey conducted at the request of the Ministry for Social Cohesion and Parity in November 2005), accounts for 211 deaths over two years, which 164 (77.7%) women and 47 men. Monitoring the offender feels that a woman dies every two days under the blows of his spouse.
Heavy impacts on mental and physical health:
According to WHO, these women lose between 1 and 4 years of healthy life and support an abused woman costs two and half times more expensive than caring for other women.
The violence of men on their partners each year, costing the state about one billion euros, CRESGE estimate furnished by the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Equality in 2006.
The impact of violence on the health of victims and their children is indeed important and the basis for many medical consultations and drug consumption.
Traumatic injuries are the direct result of physical abuse that sometimes lead to death or homicide.
The psychological impact is considerable: anxiety states and stress, depression, increased suicide risk (in Enveff, women victims of domestic violence are 25 times more likely to attempt suicide), posttraumatic stress disorder (58% of abused women have a syndrome of posttraumatic stress Traumatic positive - Astin, 1995) substance abuse (10% of women victims of domestic violence abuse drugs and medicines prescribed by the medical sedatives, sleeping pills, painkillers - Stark & Flitcraft, 1988).
During pregnancy, violence starts to 40% of women and in 40% repeat violence among women who are already victims of violence (Johnson, 1996). Women have experienced violence before or during pregnancy were 40-60% higher risk of hypertension, vaginal bleeding, the risk of prematurity was 37% higher and the rate of low birth weight babies is 17% higher (Silverman , 2006).
Child witnesses have the same symptoms as those who are directly abused: among others, conduct disorder, state anxiety and depression, increased risk of reproductive violence during childhood, adolescence and their future life adult. The risk for children of abused mothers being abused themselves would 6 to 15 times higher (Rosalind, 1997).
professionals are poorly trained, tolerant society unacceptable
The gendarmes, police and social workers receive more training specific to violence against women, however there are still many shortcomings and unmet demand. Physicians and other health professionals are certainly those who, currently receive less in specific training.
Many professionals are unaware of the problem of violence.
They can not conceive and imagine that violence affects nearly one third of patients coming to consult them. They have not learned that the violence exercised in any environment regardless of age, race, education, religion, marital status, socio-economic development. Most do not see the suffering of women victims, and thus indirectly involved in their isolation and distress.
Some prefer to remain passive when faced with violence or are these particularly difficult to manage. They have the feeling of being isolated, helpless and even fear of legal fallout. Their reactions are aggravated
by the fact that many people who have received no training during their studies. They do not know how to approach the problem and make good decisions. They fear making the situation worse with inappropriate responses. The doctor
"lost" often in the code of ethics, its obligations to assist persons in danger, medical confidentiality with exceptions for anyone who is unable to protect themselves due to age or his physical or mental.
Writing medical certificates (almost always called in a complaint), returns to the doctor, again more or less experienced. He is assigned the responsibility of determining the ITT (total inability to work) without any specific training or evaluation grid has been set up by the justice and medical authorities.
awareness and training professionals are essential and remain inadequate.
can not find what you seek and we seek only what is familiar. If this issue is not addressed in the curriculum of studies, it is imperative that professionals from different sectors have access to data and information specific to violence against women.
Training of health professionals
1) Develop nationally:
Initial training in medical schools, training institutes in nursing, midwifery schools;
Continuing education: especially for GPs, emergency, school, work, psychiatrists and gynecologists;
2) Educate and train health professionals in hospitals, employees and liberal screening situations of domestic violence;
3) give them tools for taking of these patients and for multidisciplinary collaboration in their city or region;
4) Provide legal information (criminal, civil and code of ethics) on the laws regarding domestic violence;
5) Initiate a true substantive work on the physician's role in situations of violence against women: description, medical confidentiality, writing of the medical certificate and determination of the ITT (total inability to work).
It is urgent to finally recognize violence against women as a major public health problem of our society and help through appropriate training doctors and other professionals to take charge.
tolerate violence against women is to leave a door open to other forms of violence.
[1] This petition is also visible on the sites and violence.fr CLFC.
Sign the online petition: ________________________________ http://www.lescentresdesante.com/article58.html
TERRA Source: http://www.lescentresdesante.com/article58.html
Call Network TERRA open a national project to research, debate and reflection
orgine on nationalism, xenophobia and discrimination
and causes of their periodic exacerbations in the history of mankind
4626 signatories ... and you? and you? and you?
SIGN HERE: http://terra.rezo.net/article602.html
