The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47612

Marylyn M McEwen, PhD(c), APRN, BC, College of Nursing, University of Arizona, PO Box 210203, Tucson, AZ 85721-0203, 520-626-6926, mmcewen@nursing.arizona.edu and Marion K. Slack, PhD, Pharmacy Practice and Science, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210207, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0207.

Domestic violence is a serious public health problem that affects all of society. Tens of thousands of emergency room and physician visits are due to victims of family and intimate violence (Sleet & Rosenberg, 1997). Women are frequent targets of domestic violence in the U.S., affecting between 2-6 million women per year (Elliott & Johnson, 1995). In the context of community, violence is an oppressive, destructive force which diminishes the capacity of a community's potential to sustain the health of its citizens. As health professionals we are challenged by St. Francis of Assisi's words, "seek first to understand and then to be understood". To achieve such an outcome in the context of domestic violence at the community level, what is called for are philosophical and theoretical underpinnings consistent with achieving understanding and that support participation in the co-creation of a community's health. This paper will discuss the application of Parse's Human Becoming Theory as an organizing framework for an interdisciplinary team of health profession students (nursing, pharmacy, public health, medicine, and social work) and community members in response to domestic violence. The application of the principles (illuminating meaning through explication with community, synchronizing with community rhythms, mobilizing transcendence), concepts (imaging, valuing, languaging; revealing/concealing, enabling/limiting, connecting/separating; powering, originating, transforming) and theoretical structures of Human Becoming to domestic violence will be explicated through the 2-year partnership with this rural community.

Learning Objectives:

• List the three principles of the Health Becoming Model.
• Articulate how the concepts related to at least two of the principles were applied in this project.
• List two domestic violence prevention strategies that may be applied to their community.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.