2019 Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Photo Credit: Shutterstock ID: 1184779612
In our operationalizing UW Medicine’s Healthcare Equity Blueprint, the UW Medicine Healthcare Equity (UWM HCE) team is focused on supporting our workforce in better understanding social determinants of health and intersectionality underlying some of our patients’ healthcare needs. This requires our discussing and learning more about domestic violence among other traumas.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2010 – 2012 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, one in four women and one in nine men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
In our acknowledgement of Domestic Violence Month, UW Medicine Healthcare Equity UWM HCE reiterates our year-round focus on what Kemberlé Crenshaw unequivocally explains about intersectionality – a framework she developed, “[intersectionality] describes the ways in which power structures based on race, ethnicity, gender, class, ability, religion, nationality/citizenship, and other markers of difference interact to inform individual realities and lived experiences, as well as to shape systemic policies and practices.” Crenshaw’s principle underlies our approach to provide healthcare professionals and their support teams the tools and resources needed to meet patients – including those who have experienced domestic violence – where they are.
This October join UWM HCE as we mourn for those whose lives were taken by domestic violence, celebrate the tremendous progress victim advocates have made over the years, and connect with one another with a true sense of unity to end domestic violence.
Resources
Photo Credit: UW Medicine Photo Library
Contact UW Medicine’s Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress Center at Harborview Medical Center by calling (206) 744.1600. The clinic hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Mon – Fri). For more information about the clinic’s comprehensive evaluations and compassion care services click here.