SAN FRANCISCO -- Six phone calls over eight weeks from nurses to women experiencing domestic violence can significantly increase their safety-promoting behaviors, with impact that lasts for at least 18 months. That is the conclusion of a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Nursing. It provides the strongest evidence yet that healthcare providers who intervene with women who are battered can help save their lives.

Researchers randomly assigned battered women who sought civil protection orders to treatment and control groups, using a 15-item checklist to probe their safety-promoting behaviors at six intervals over eight weeks. These behaviors include removing weapons from the home, hiding a set of car keys, asking neighbors to call police if they hear an altercation, and copying down bank account numbers. Follow-up at three, six, 12 and 18 months after intake determined that the average number of safety-promoting behaviors practiced by women in the treatment group increased by two from intake to three months; an average increase of nearly two was sustained over 18 months.

“This is the first study to take a long-term look at the effect of intervention by health care providers,” said Family Violence Prevention Fund managing director Debbie Lee, who runs the organization’s pioneering health program. “Six phone calls totaling less than one hour had a dramatic impact on a woman’s ability to protect herself and her children from domestic abuse. This study provides the most compelling evidence yet that intervention by health care providers can help battered women escape abuse.”

Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the study was conducted by Judith McFarlane, DrPH, RN, FAAN; Ann Malecha, PhD; Julia Gist, PhD, RN; Kathy Watson, MS; Elizabeth Batten, BA; Iva Hall, PhD, RN; and Sheila Smith, PhD, RN.

For more than two decades, the Family Violence Prevention Fund has worked to end violence against women and children around the world, because every person has the right to live free of violence. The FVPF runs the nation’s federally funded National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence, which develops educational resources, training materials and model protocols to help healthcare providers better serve battered women, including the award-winning video, “Screening to End Abuse.”

Source: Family Violence Prevention Fund