Day, Tanis. The Health Related Costs of Violence Against Women in Canada: The Tip of the Iceberg. London, ON: Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children, 1995.

This national report emerged out of a paper commissioned by the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, which was closed by the Federal government in 1995. This paper is grounded in a feminist theoretical perspective, and documents both the immediate and long-term health costs associated with physical or sexual violence against women. The data for this study were drawn from a variety of sources, including the national Violence Against Women Survey, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics and Canadian Centre for Health Information. Based on the data collected, the author made a number of informed assumptions and calculations (listed in the report) to derive her estimations of short and long-term health costs. The author has also included the stories of a number of women who are survivors of violent relationships.

This document would be of interest to researchers, health care professionals, advocacy groups, and policy-makers, as well as to the general public. The document could have policy implications for health care and social services planning and spending, vis-à-vis women's health care needs, at both the federal and provincial levels of government.

This handbook was written in order to foster dental professionals' awareness of the family violence issue and to offer strategies for responding to these concerns. Specifically, the handbook seeks to: (1) increase awareness of the existence of family violence among patients; (2) increase understanding of the basic facts about family violence; (3) enhance identification and referral skills; and (4) outline the contributions that dental teams and their professional organizations can make to ending family violence. Although this document is not written specifically from a feminist theoretical perspective, it does reflect a pro-feminist approach to understanding the dynamics of violence against women.

The handbook provides information on how to identify various types of family violence (child abuse, abuse of women, and abuse of older adults), the role of the dental team in making interventions, and the requirements and procedures for documenting and reporting cases of abuse. In addition, the handbook includes a section on special considerations when treating survivors of child sexual abuse, suggestions for implementing proactive initiatives for preventing violence, a list of resources, and several appendices. Although this handbook has been written for a specific audience (i.e., dental team professionals), it may also be of interest to researchers, and educators - particularly instructors in dental school and related professional programs.

This manual is intended as a guide for the Healthy Relationship Programme whose goal is to heighten awareness about abusive behaviour in relationships. There are twenty steps in total to this program which are meant to help women identify the components of an abusive relationship. This guide will be of interest generally to women and to those working with assaulted women.

The final report of this project offers a detailed discussion of the project's methodology, results, and the implications of those results for providing effective emergency treatment and follow-up care to battered women. The objective of this project, the first comprehensive Canadian study of its kind, was to design and implement an interdisciplinary program to effectively meet the needs of battered women who are treated in an emergency department. In order to meet this objective, educational programs for emergency department medical and nursing staff were developed and implemented along with a procedures and protocol manual. Procedures for the care and follow-up of battered women were based on feminist principles. Statistics for the clinical component of the Domestic Violence Program were collected over a two year period, 1992-1994. Sources of data included a cross-sectional study of the domestic violence disclosure rate (via a screening process aimed at increasing detection of such cases) and a chart review of patients treated between 1992 and 1994. In addition, a national survey of hospital emergency departments was conducted, as was a small, descriptive study of the incidence of domestic violence against older women.

This study has important implications both as a model for implementing similar programs in other emergency departments, and as a catalyst for "developing educational and research projects concerning the care of abused women for medical and nursing personnel and for the academic community" (Grunfeld, Hotch & MacKay, 1995:20). This study also brings to light the need to integrate education about the emergency care of battered women into medical, nursing and social work curricula, and continuing education programs for health professionals. This study will be of interest to health care professionals, feminist and health care researchers, and front-line service providers in rape crisis centres and women's shelters.

This study, funded in part by Health Canada's Family Violence Initiative, provides an analysis of oral histories taken from four elderly abused women for the purposes of better understanding the effects of violence on the lives of elderly women. This study appears to be grounded in a feminist conceptual framework and employs a qualitative methodology and analysis to meet its objectives. Specifically, qualitative oral histories were utilized both as a means of establishing a supportive framework for the women who volunteered to share their stories, and as means of understanding the experience of violence from the patient's perspectives. An interview guide with an introductory statement and five open-ended questions was designed and utilized to identify the meaning each woman gave to her experiences of being battered by family members. Interview transcripts were analyzed for dominant themes within and across each woman's story.

The results of this qualitative analysis indicate that themes such as powerlessness, violence in the family of origin, objectification, survival, and barriers to leaving the relationships were pervasive in the women's lives. The results also indicate that for some of these women, a significant turning point in their lives came about as a result of receiving support from a medical professional. Furthermore, the research suggests that abuse endured over many years contributed to significant health concerns of the women who participated in this study. The outcome of this study has significant implications for the role of family in routinely screening, identifying and appropriately caring for elderly women who may be, or have been, battered, particularly as this group of women is more likely to seek help from a health professional than a woman's shelter.

This study would be of interest to feminist and medical researchers and academics interested in the area of violence against elderly women, as well as health practitioners and front-line workers in the anti-violence movement.

This manual was developed as a reference guide for emergency department staff (physicians, nurses, and social workers) who are considering - or are in the process of - developing a protocol for responding to domestic violence. This document evolved out of a project, funded by the Family Violence Prevention Department of Health Canada, designed to establish a Domestic Violence program in the emergency department at Vancouver Hospital. The document, which reflects a pro-feminist conceptual framework, may be used either as a set of guidelines for setting up a protocol, or as an evaluative tool to be used in the process of evaluating or modifying existing policies and procedures. The manual is divided into the following sections: The Emergency Department and Domestic Violence (underlying principles); Domestic Violence Intervention Guidelines of Care; Identification; Assessment/Examination of the patient; Documentation and Reporting; Safety Planning and Referrals; Establishing a Domestic Violence Follow-up program; sample documentation forms; and a list of community resources.

The manual is primarily directed at emergency department staff and administrators, but this document would also be of interest to researchers and front-line workers in women's shelters.

Note: The complete study, out of which this manual developed, has also been annotated in this bibliography.

The authors of this report begin with a discussion of the need to find effective, appropriate, and inexpensive ways to respond to woman abuse, especially during this time of growth in unemployment and poverty, coupled with cutbacks to health, social, and legal services. The authors contend that the recognition of violence as a health issue - as well as a recognition of the central involvement and contributions of the health sector - are critical to bring about change. Through a historical review, the authors demonstrate that a health-centred vision has been present in responses to woman abuse across Canada beginning in the 1970s, and continuing to the present day where the emphasis is on health promotion. As part of this project, the authors provide an analysis of 30 projects funded by Health Canada in the most recent federal government Family Violence Initiative using a Population Health Promotion Model developed by Health Canada. The authors conclude that these projects have added significantly to the available tools and resources that can be used to bring about change.

This project is of interest, in particular, to front-line workers and policy makers working in the health field or with survivors of abuse and assault.

This guide provides a fairly comprehensive survey of the existing literature regarding the impact of violence on mental health.

The guide begins by defining the scope of its twin concerns- mental health and violence. Each of these concepts are carefully defined for the purposes of this survey and the notion of violence as a mental health concern is underscored. The next section, the heart of the report, discusses writing and research on the following distinct types of violence: child abuse, abuse in intimate relationships, abuse and neglect of older adults, and rape/sexual assault.

The final section points to gaps in the literature. Future research is advocated, in particular, to study the effects of ones' social context on violence, the cumulative effects of recurring violence, and the inclination of victims to seek professional help. In general, the author emphasizes the importance of mental health professionals sharing the practical lessons they have learned in assisting people effected by violence. Ristock writes, a "systematic method of knowledge exchange" is called for to facilitate this exchange (p. 16).

This survey is a useful tool for health and social service providers, and especially to those working with survivors of violence.

The authors review the literature on battered woman syndrome in order to determine whether there is enough information, from a clinical perspective, to warrant its inclusion as a type of post traumatic stress disorder in the DSM-IV. Having made this determination, the authors then address the implications of relying on battered woman syndrome as a legal defence for women who kill their abusive partners. The authors point out that while this syndrome is not a legal defence, per se, it is used to support the validity of raising a defence such as self-defence, automatism, or not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder (i.e., insanity). Roth and Cole consider the strengths and weaknesses of applying the battered woman syndrome to each of these legal defences. They point out that there is a danger of stigmatizing and/or pathologizing women when this syndrome is introduced in conjunction with a defence of either automatism or not guilty by reason of mental disorder. The conclusion which may be drawn from this article is that the interpretation and application of the battered woman syndrome may have significant legal and social implications for battered women who kill their partners. This article will be of interest primarily to clinicians and legal professionals, particularly lawyers and judges.