More knowledge is also needed about the costs of fami ly violence, in terms of health care, school performance, employment productivity, and so forth. Step 3.The integration of preventive measures for family violence into a comprehensive, community-based program of family support services across a spectrum of developmental milestones is needed. Although such an integrated program is desirab le, its dimensions remain vague and the barriers to implementation are enormous. Some elements of the concept of comprehensive, community-based programs can be encouraged within the existing structure of services, for example, by distributing information about women's emergency shelter programs to hospital emergency room personnel who may treat victims of domestic violence. However, the goal of comprehensive services goes beyond information-sharing and seeks to simplify access to services that address common family needs.
Many comprehensive services focus on the mother-child rela tionship following an infant's birth.
An elder ly person's registration for Medicare, for example, could represent an appropriate time for health and social service interventions designed to support healthy family functioning. The dimensions and long-term costs of family violence are just beginning to emerge in American society. By exposing the limitations of scientific knowledge in dealing with this complex problem, new efforts can be designed to develop a broad range of p rogram and policies.