Team Members
- Melissa Dichter, PhD, MSW
- Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH
- Jessica Palardy, MSW
Research Project Description
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health problem that leads to significant acute and chronic physical and mental health conditions as well as increased healthcare use and costs. Healthcare providers can be helpful in screening patients for IPV and connecting patients with resources for seeking safety from future violence and healing from the physical, psychological, and social impacts of IPV victimization.
The Lutheran Settlement House Bilingual Domestic Violence Program (LSH BDVP), a community-based IPV advocacy and social services program, established the medical advocacy program STOP IPV to bridge the connection between medical and social services in addressing IPV. STOP IPV provides to healthcare systems: training on IPV screening and response, consultation on developing IPV identification and response protocols, and a direct connection to LSH BDVP counselors. This unique and innovative program has been successfully integrated into several healthcare systems through healthcare-agency partnerships; however, gaps in addressing IPV in the healthcare setting remain.
Preliminary research suggests that providers and healthcare systems would feel more empowered to help their patients and caregivers of pediatric patients experiencing IPV if they knew what happened following the screening and referral intervention (i.e., what services were utilized and how patient health was impacted). Patients who are IPV survivors have desires to provide feedback about their experiences and contribute to the improvement of policies and programs. We aim to address these gaps in medical-community collaboration by collecting and reporting back client (i.e., patient/IPV survivor) feedback to the screening/referring healthcare provider and examining the impact of this feedback experience on the provider and client, and track client health outcomes. Our proposed project addresses the topic of “clinical practice, social services, and health” as it aims to strengthen the healthcare-social services partnership to address experiences of IPV and its related health and social impacts. This project would contribute to knowledge to strengthen medical-community partnerships to address IPV and also provide valuable information on a client-centered model that could be used for other healthcare-social services partnerships.
Team Members
Melissa Dichter, PhD, MSW
Dr. Dichter is an Associate Professor at Temple University and Core Investigator at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. Her areas of expertise include social factors impacting health and health disparities with a particular focus on intimate partner violence and associated social health concerns. Her work has also focused on identifying and meeting the needs of women military veterans and of gender and sexual minority populations.
Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH
Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH is an attending physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently directs the hospital-wide Intimate Partner Violence Task Force at CHOP in collaboration with community partners, Lutheran Settlement House. Her research and academic interests include public health, program implementation, and intimate partner violence.
Jessica Palardy, MSW
Jessica Palardy is the STOP IPV supervisor at Lutheran Settlement House. In this role, she supervises counselors at different healthcare sites to ensure patients and families receive high quality services, as well as works to with healthcare stakeholders to advance the program's goals of safety for all patients.
Issue Brief: Philadelphia
Intimate Partner Violence Survivor Feedback can Inform Healthcare Response
Webpage: Center for Violence Prevention
Includes a four-part series geared toward healthcare providers about the domestic violence screening experience, listening to your patient, building relationships, and more from domestic violence survivors.
