Violence can have a significant impact on health, and survivors have often been restricted from accessing care due to IPV and HT. Partnering with health centers will promote access to care for survivors in your program. Learn more about how health centers can also work to include DV/SA programs as part of their care team.
"Noemi [patient advocate at Mariposa Health Center] and Mercedes [domestic violence advocate at Catholic Community Services] have come together to not just provide single advocacy on the DV side…but also advocacy on the client care/health side. They enhanced [available] resources, they broadened those support circles…and in a small community you definitely need as much as help as you can get because sometimes the resources are slim to none."
— Lisa Silva, Program Director, Catholic Community Services (Sierra Vista, AZ)
Receiving Warm Referrals From Health Centers
Serving as the primary referral from your partnering health center increases patients’ access to DV/SA services. Offer trainings and continuing education with the health center to introduce your agency’s services and staff, along with the dynamics, prevalence, and health impact of IPV and HT. Trainings for your partner will better equip providers and staff to address and respond to IPV and HT at their health center.
- Promoting Health Advocacy in Domestic Violence Programs
Click to download
Providing Health Services
Promote survivor health at your agency by offering important health services such as health enrollment, reproductive health resources, pain medication, and rapid HIV testing. Reflect a culture of health for your clients and staff through wellness classes, healthy food options, and info on health coverage and care. Another way that DV/SA advocates can promote health is by talking with survivors about reproductive coercion and offering reproductive health services like pregnancy tests, contraception, and condoms.
- Integrating Health and Wellness into DV Advocacy Program Intake and Case Management
Click to download - Health Care Guide for Survivors of DV/SA
Click to download - Top 5 Ways Advocates Can Promote Healthcare Access
Click to download - Getting to Know Your Medicaid Department: Questions to Ask
Click to download - Healthcare.gov Enrollment for Survivors of DV
Click to download - Expanding the Continuum Podcast Short: Promoting Health Access to Survivors During Open Enrollment
Click to listen
IPV, Trafficking, and Health: Know the Facts
- Impact of Domestic Violence on Health
Click to download - The Facts on Reproductive Care and Partner Abuse
Click to download - Violence Against Women Living with HIV
Click to download - Human Trafficking and Children: A Fact Sheet
Click to download
Health centers participating in the Improving Health Outcomes Through Violence Prevention Pilot Project found that establishing formal partnerships, including memoranda of understanding (MOUs), with community based DV/SA programs, as well as other organizations that support survivors of violence, was crucial to providing trauma informed care for survivors.
Tools to Build a Successful Partnership
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): It is critical for health centers and DV/SA programs to form solid partnerships in anticipation of future needs. Roles and responsibilities of each organization should be clearly identified; establishing an MOU is one of the best tools to use.
Next Step
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This website was developed in 2017 with funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), and Family Violence Prevention and Services Program (FVPSA), Grant #90EV0414. Funding was also provided, in part, from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). As of 2023, updates to this website are made possible by HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) with funding totaling $682,548 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with no contributions from non-governmental sources. The content is the authors' responsibility and does not necessarily reflect the views of HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more details, visit www.HRSA.gov.