FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 5, 1997
Terry Lightfoot (510) 987-9194
terry.lightfoot@ucop.edu
Despite increasing pressure on doctors to report suspected cases of domestic violence, more than 50 percent of medical school graduates rate their training in family and domestic violence as inadequate.
To address a growing need in academic medical training programs, two University of California physicians have developed a set of course materials to help doctors recognize domestic violence in the practice of medicine. The UC Office of the President, through a grant from the California Wellness Foundation, is providing the materials this week to all 125 medical schools across the country.
Drs. Stuart Slavin and Michael Wilkes, co-chairs of UCLA School of Medicine's Doctoring Curriculum, designed the training module to help a new generation of health professionals develop the skills and knowledge necessary to work effectively with victims of, and those at risk for, domestic violence.
"Domestic violence is an important health problem for all ethnic and socioeconomic groups," said Dr. Cornelius Hopper, UC vice president of health affairs. "Unfortunately, in many cases, physicians are ill-prepared to recognize and intervene in the cycle of violence, largely because of a lack of exposure to this topic during their undergraduate medical educational experience."
Brownell Anderson, associate vice president for medical education at the Association of American Medical Colleges, commended Slavin and Wilkes for making the teaching module available to other medical schools. "All medical schools are interested in making recognizing domestic violence an important element in patient care. This will be an excellent resource for other academic medical centers."
Distribution of the teaching materials was made possible, in part, through a $250,000 grant last year from The California Wellness Foundation to the UC Wellness Lectures program. Created in 1992 as a private and independent foundation, the California Wellness Foundation's mission is to improve the health of the people of California through health promotion and disease prevention programs.
Slavin and Wilkes received the Wellness Lectures Award for their work in developing the material in 1995. Each year six UC faculty are selected from among applicants throughout the nine-campus system and awarded $3,000 plus $1,000 for research and editing assistance to prepare an original paper and present a lecture.
The domestic violence training model is particularly important in states, like California, where legislation requires physicians and other medical workers to report suspected incidences of domestic violence.
Healthcare professionals are among those most likely to see victims of violence or those at risk for becoming victims. As such, the medical community constitutes a front line for identification, intervention and prevention.
Slavin and Wilkes say that evidence suggests that healthcare professionals are not fulfilling this essential role. They indicated that reports show that between 20 percent and 35 percent of women visiting emergency rooms are there because of symptoms of ongoing abuse, yet only 5 percent of victims of domestic violence are so identified.Wilkes said that over 50 percent of graduating medical students in the United States rated their instruction in family and domestic violence as inadequate, compared to 5 percent who rated their education in the basic sciences as inadequate.
The Wilkes and Slavin model is extremely flexible so that it can be implemented at medical schools with varying curricular structures and teaching methods. The model includes a 30-minute videotape of clinical encounters concerning the problem of violence, an overview of the curriculum, three formats of instruction and a faculty tutor guide for teaching in small groups.
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NOTES:
To contact Drs. Wilkes and Slavin, call Linda King, director of UCLA Health Sciences Communications, at (310) 206-1960.
For more information on the California Wellness Foundation and Wellness Lectures Program, visit the website at
http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/healaff/wellpgm/.