In the wake of the Ray Rice video there has been some spectacular reading dominating my Twitter feed. Certainly more than I can keep up with. I recommend checking out the entries under the hashtags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft (and also #WhenILeft). They would make a great jumping off point for talks with your team about the realities our patients experience every day, or the basis for an inservice for Emergency Department or L&D personnel (especially if you’re hearing crap like “I don’t know why she expects us to care about her when she clearly doesn’t”, or other such nonsense). If you’re looking for a few good longer reads that can help infuse the conversation with the voices of survivors I recommend either of these (and I know there are many more out there):
Why I Married My Abuser (Anonymous)
It Will Look Like a Sunset (Kelly Sundberg)
We’ll be using these Tweets today with our participants as part of the discussion about providing medical-forensic care to IPV patients. Because there are countless reasons our patients stay in abusive relationships and our job isn’t predicated on getting them out. Understanding the context of the violence and their experiences navigating and surviving it makes us better at what we do.
{It’s not lost on me that this is all taking place as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act}