Why should advocates support survivor health?
Serving a vital role in communities, advocates have an important opportunity to promote survivor health and well-being. Advocates are in a unique position to intervene and reduce health consequences related to IPV, as entering domestic violence programs may be the first time survivors have had space to address health and wellness.
It is crucial for domestic and sexual violence advocates to partner with health providers to promote survivor well-being and ensure organizational sustainability.
Many survivors have been restricted from accessing care by abusive partners. Your program has the opportunity to promote the well-being of survivors and their children through partnerships with health professionals.
Partnering with Healthcare
Elements of Partnering
Partnering with healthcare will promote wellbeing for survivors in your program, many of whom have been restricted from accessing care by abusive partners.
Connect with your local hospital, sexual health clinic, or community health center.
Host cross-trainings with the health center to promote shared knowledge between your staff.
Ensure seamless care by developing a referral procedure between your staff and the health center.
Explore innovative models for partnership to ensure partnership sustainability.
Provider training tools for advocates: CUES
Healthcare workers should all be trained on
Dynamics of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and reproductive coercion.
Health impacts of violence.
Evidence-based intervention for addressing IPV: CUES.
Strategies for health promotion and harm reduction with survivors.
Health and medical advocacy
Promote survivor health and well-being at your agency by offering important information and healthcare access such as reproductive health resources, pain medication, and rapid HIV testing.
Reflect a culture of health for your clients and staff through wellness classes, relevant and healthy food options, and access to health coverage and care.
Supporting survivor health
Sexual and reproductive coercion
One way that DSV advocates can promote health is by talking with survivors about sexual and reproductive coercion and offering sexual and reproductive health services like pregnancy tests, emergency contraception (EC), and condoms.
Supporting staff
Supporting staff who are experiencing vicarious trauma is a key element in a comprehensive culture of health at DV/SV agencies.
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Accountability and Connection with Abusive Men
This PDF document is an effort to remedy the excessive focus on mothers in cases involving domestic violence. View resource -
CHATS: Advocate Guide - Traumatic Brain Injury (Ohio Domestic Violence Network)
CHATS helps advocates CONNECT with survivors, IDENTIFY and PROVIDE INFORMATION on head injuries, and ACCOMMODATE people's needs. View resource -
Beyond Observation: Considerations for Advancing Domestic Violence Practice in Supervised Visitation
This paper presents considerations for expanded practice in the Supervised Visitation Grant Program and describes interventions that go beyond observation in… View resource -
Building Domestic Violence Health Care Responses in Indian Country: A Promising Practices Report
In the largest-ever survey of its kind, a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on health and violence found that 39 percent of Native women… View resource
