Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the health professional should be able to do the following:

• Define domestic/intimate partner violence.
• Discuss the prevalence of abuse, and consider the numbers of patients in his/her practice that may be either victims or perpetrators of domestic violence.
• List four types of abuse.
• Discuss assessment and screening procedures for determining whether a patient has any history of being either a victim, or a perpetrator, of domestic violence.
• Explain the Florida state regulations in relation to reporting abuse for children, vulnerable adults, and adults in general.
• Describe the steps for reporting abuse.
• List at least 4 different intervention services in the state of Florida.
• Describe how to provide vulnerable patients with information on, or how to refer such patients to, resources in the local community, such as
  
  • domestic violence centers and other advocacy groups, that provide legal aid,
  • shelter,
  • victim counseling ,
  • batterer counseling, or child protection services.