Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- one Introduction
- two Domestic violence and the medical profession
- Part One Domestic violence patients speak out
- Part Two Clinicians’ knowledge and clinical experience of domestic violence
- Part Three Clinicians’ training and inter-agency collaboration
- fourteen Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Appendix 1 Details of research participants
- Appendix 2 Useful information and contacts
eight - Physical versus non-physical injuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- one Introduction
- two Domestic violence and the medical profession
- Part One Domestic violence patients speak out
- Part Two Clinicians’ knowledge and clinical experience of domestic violence
- Part Three Clinicians’ training and inter-agency collaboration
- fourteen Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Appendix 1 Details of research participants
- Appendix 2 Useful information and contacts
Summary
Part One identified the experiences of the stage one participants in relation to their clinical interactions with healthcare professionals. A number of issues were acknowledged, including the extent of physical and non-physical injuries which the participating women ascribed to the domestic violence they were experiencing. This chapter is intended to address those concerns from the perceptions of the stage two participants. As such, it addresses the identification and diagnosis of physical and non-physical injuries within a number of contexts.
Identifying physical injuries
Before looking at the way in which the participating healthcare professionals identified physical domestic violence-related injuries, it should be acknowledged that all of the participating general practitioners and health visitors had experience of dealing with domestic violencerelated injuries in their clinical practice. Within the wider sample of respondents to the domestic violence and health questionnaire (Abbott and Williamson, 1999), 15.5% of respondents believed they saw women who had physical injuries as a result of assault by their male partner at least once a month, 76% occasionally, and 8.5% believed they never treated women who had physical injuries as a result of domestic violence. Clearly, therefore, most healthcare professionals will, at least occasionally, treat women who have physical injuries caused by domestic violence. Considering this revelation, I asked all of the healthcare professionals what types of injuries they had been presented with and/or what types of injuries would make them suspect that domestic violence was a possible cause of injury. They identified similar injuries and were competent at identifying non-accidental injuries:
“Patients would usually disclose but if not would look for physical injuries, separate injuries in various locations. Look initially for facial injuries, ie black eyes, pressure marks to upper arms, blows to the head, would apply the same rules as to child protection.” (Dr Aaron)
“Well, obviously unexplained injuries that I came across in the examination. If she said that she had come in with a cough and I listened to her chest and then I found that she had a lot of bruises of various ages then that would suggest some sort of violence, domestic violence.” (Dr Iannelli)
”… there may be the obvious signs of physical abuse, the bruise, black eye, ‘oh, I did that bumping into the door’ or something like that and clearly it's inconsistent what they’re actually saying.” (Dr Jabber)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Domestic Violence and HealthThe Response of the Medical Profession, pp. 107 - 116Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2000