Need for Awareness

Efforts to strengthen responses by health care professionals to family violence¹ have increased dramatically in recent years.² As a result, more health care providers are able to recognize the signs of abuse and assist patients who are victims. However, dental professionals appear to be the least likely of all clinicians to suspect and intervene in family violence, even though injuries to the head and neck are present in 60 percent or more of abuse cases.³ Although they may see abuse-related injuries during patient visits, dental professionals typically have not been trained to recognize the causes of these injuries or how to offer intervention and referrals to patients.

With this need in mind, the University of Minnesota’s School of Dentistry and the Program Against Sexual Violence⁴ joined forces in 1997 to create a training program called Family Violence: An Intervention Model for Dental Professionals. The collaboration was prompted by a patient’s disclosure of partner abuse to staff at the dental school clinic.⁵ Clinic staff subsequently helped the patient access the Program Against Sexual Violence. After this incident, representatives from the two programs began discussing how to systematically prepare dental students, faculty, and practitioners to deal with patients affected by family violence.

The resulting training program, funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), addresses the following points:

• Ethical and legal responsibilities of dental professionals.
• Definitions and dynamics of family violence.
• The impact of abuse on victims.
• Intervention skills and techniques.
• Methods for creating a safe office environment.