Responding to Domestic Abuse - Guidelines for Health Care Workers in NHSScotland

RESPONDING TO DOMESTIC ABUSE - GUIDELINES FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN NHSSCOTLAND

FOREWORD

By the Minister for Health and Community Care

The Scottish Executive is committed to making Scotland a safer, fairer, more just society, and that means tackling violence and, in particular, violence in families at every level and in every setting. Domestic abuse has serious and long lasting consequences for the health and well-being of sufferers and their children. Its effects are profoundly damaging. Tackling this pervasive problem and the problems associated with it - physical injury, poor mental health, misuse of alcohol or drugs, anxiety and depression, and risk of suicide - must be of crucial importance for the NHS. We must continue to raise awareness about domestic abuse, improve information about the scale and nature of the problem and bring about a shift in attitudes, so that domestic abuse is no longer tolerable in Scottish society.

Domestic abuse is a complex and wide-ranging issue encompassing many areas of Government policy. We need to work to prevent violence crossing the generations. That must begin very early with education, in our nurseries and schools, and pre-birth, in parenting education and support for our young parents. All our public services need to work together to eradicate domestic abuse from our families and communities. There is much that NHS Scotland can do to help and support women experiencing abuse. It is vital that health care staff have the confidence and knowledge to be able to give help to those women who seek it. These guidelines should help clinicians and health professionals identify and respond to women experiencing domestic abuse. I know that the NHS in Scotland will play its part in doing so by ensuring their effective implementation.

Malcolm Chisholm, MSP