Domestic violence is a health care issue. Most women visit health care providers for routine medical care, and victims of domestic violence also see health care providers for treatment of their injuries. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 37 percent of all women who sought care in hospital emergency rooms for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.

This puts health care providers in a unique position to help victims of abuse, if they know how to detect domestic violence and provide victims with referrals and support. But, too often, health care providers do not discuss abuse with their patients or screen patients for domestic violence. Fewer than ten percent of primary care physicians routinely screen patients for domestic violence during regular office visits, according to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999.

For more than a decade, the Family Violence Prevention Fund's (FVPF's) groundbreaking and highly successful National Health Initiative on Domestic Violence has been improving the health care response to domestic violence through public policy reform and health education and prevention efforts. The National Health Initiative on Domestic Violence develops educational resources, training materials and model protocols on domestic violence and screening to help health care providers better serve battered women.