HELP SEEKING AND THE ROLE OF HEALTH CARE SETTINGS While help seeking among survivors of IPV is known to increase as abuse severity increases (Duterte et al., 2008), survivor health needs remain unmet or underserved. 9 to 22% of abused women will seek medical treatment at some point (Duterte et al., 2008). Women experiencing severe physical or sexual abuse are more likely to seek formal help, and represent a significant portion of the numbers seeking care in emergency departments (Reisenhofer & Seibold, 2012; Kramer, Lorenzo & Mueller, 2004). Research overwhelmingly points to the role of partnerships, coordination, multidisciplinary teams, inter-organizational collaboration, and co-located models of victim service as the bestpositioned efforts to continually offer innovative services and better address health needs of survivors (McGarry, Ney, 2006; Knoben and Oerlemans, 2006; Gewirtz, 2010; Munger, 2010; Gwinn, Strack, 2010; Uddin and Hossain, 2011b; Petrucci, 2013).
HIGHLIGHTS: MEDICAL HELP-SEEKING
9 to 22% of abused women will seek medical treatment at some point.
“Women who are abused are frequently treated within health-care systems, however, they generally do not present with obvious trauma, even in accident and emergency departments (Campbell, 2002).”
Increased severity of abuse is associated with higher rates of help-seeking from formal services, including medical care.
DV victims make up a significant proportion of people using Emergency Rooms.
Health care costs of abused women are over twice that of never-abused women (or $4,500 more). Multidisciplinary and co-located organizations are best-equipped to systematically address overall health needs of survivors.
ADDRESSING HEALTH NEEDS OF IPV SURVIVORS
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