Ill. Family violence has a ripple effect. Those who experience it and those who witness it suffer physical and emotional injuries. Those who perpetrate it also wound themselves. Violence damages family and other relationships, often from childhood onward.
Clinicians often struggle when trying to address domestic violence.
They may not know what to say or do. They may find it traumatic to listen to a patient's report. Some have trouble empathizing with the victim's helplessness. Some are involved in abusive relationships themselves, according to speakers at a symposium on domestic violence at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association here. In emergency departments, physicians may miss or dismiss abuse, according to Carole Warshaw, MD, who directs the domestic violence and mental health policy initiative at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.