Doctors are also key because their nonjudgmental response to the patient can make a difference in terms of the patient's willingness to seek other types of help, or to come back for help in the future. It is important to be aware that battered women may leave their partners and go back to them several times before they are ready to leave for good. There are many reasons for this reluctance to leave, including love for the partner, financial dependence, wanting a father for the children, fearing the abuser's threats to take the children away forever or to kill the patient or her family, facing the prospect of severe immigration consequences, thinking that they deserve abuse, and feeling religious or family pressure to stay together at all costs. If doctors define success in domestic violence cases only in terms of persuading battered women to leave their partners, they may be frustrated and feel that they are having no impact. Fortunately, whether or not the patient decides to leave the abuser and is successful in doing so, doctors can have a positive impact.
Physicians really can make a difference.
Chez R. Woman battering. The secondary victims of domestic violence. He Has His Mother's Eyes. Fantuzzo J, Boruch R, Beriama A, et al. Bower LH, et al.