A realistic view of domestic violence screening in an emergency department

Sutherland Hospital is a district hospital serving The Sutherland Shire, a metropolitan area of Sydney. It has a population of approximately 220,000 which is predominantly Anglo-Saxon in ethnic origin. The Emergency Department provides emergency services for 30,000 new patients per annum. New South Wales Department of Health obtained Commonwealth funding from Partnerships Against Domestic Violence to pilot routine screening for domestic violence within 2 Area Health Services. One of the participating sites was the Emergency Department in South East Sydney Area Health Service. The aim was for nursing and medical staff to screen, for three months, all women sixteen years old and over. Information cards on state-wide domestic violence resources and referral flow charts were developed for the pilot. Staff undertook training and issues were addressed prior to the screening. In this article we will discuss the findings, including the rate of screening by the staff, disclosure rate of domestic violence, and action taken on disclosure. We will then proceed to explain the difficulties in undertaking screening within an Emergency Department, and make recommendations for those Emergency Departments interested in commencing screening.