6033.0: Thursday, November 16, 2000 - 8:30 AM

Abstract #7649

Building bridges between health care & domestic violence: the role of a statewide leadership task force

Nancy Ann Worcester, PhD, Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 313 Lowell Center, 610 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53703-1195, 608-262-3635, czk@mail.dcs.wisc.edu

In this presentation, the founder and coordinator of the Wisconsin Domestic Violence Training Project, which has trained more than 25,000 people, will share rewards and challenges of organizing an on-going statewide task force on health system response to domestic violence. Particular attention will be paid to sharing ideas which have worked in Wisconsin which could be used elsewhere.

This presentation will share "success" stories of several statewide conferences which have been able to "showcase" a range of model programs from many parts of both rural and urban Wisconsin and a task force which meets several times a year. Particular attention will be given to sharing ideas about how this has been done with very little money and respecting that all the players involved are already overextended people with little time to devote to statewide meetings.

This presentation will cover practical information about how to do organizing and networking. However, the emphasis will be put on the importance of this work to ensure that the health system response to domestic violence is accountable to battered women, that battered women's voices are core to all stages of planning, developing and evaluating health system response to domestic violence, that domestic violence advocates recognize the particular rewards and challenges of working with the medical system, and that community-initiated programming appropriate to the very different needs and resources of different communities is recognized as important.

Learning Objectives: Have specific ideas for the development of a statewide task force on health system response to domestic violence. Have a model for inexpensive ways to inspire and showcase projects which are accountable to battered women. Have ideas for encouraging collaborative community-initiated projects between health system and domestic violence providers

Keywords: Women's Health, Domestic Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA