Bridging prevention and practice: public health and family violence

Public health approaches the primary prevention of family violence by focusing on surveillance, the identification of risk factors, and the development, evaluation, and dissemination of interventions. Physicians and other health care providers are crucial in this process because they are in a unique position to identify at-risk individuals and populations and to implement both broad-based and targeted preventive and intervention initiatives. Incorporating public health principles into medical education and medical practice not only can reduce the severity of this epidemic by strengthening efforts in early detection and expert intervention but also can create effective primary prevention, an important necessary step towards eradicating every disease or condition. This article discusses the role of public health professionals in preventing family and intimate violence. It notes specific findings from public health research, including the cycle of violence and the need to incorporate issues of abuse across the life span, and other factors, into medical education. Addressing family and intimate violence in a caring and sensitive manner is difficult, and incorporating public health principles into medical education and medical practice can forge an effective partnership between medical practitioners and public health professionals. This new partnership represents both an important challenge and a unique opportunity to understand family and intimate violence and thus to develop and evaluate effective short- and long-term solutions.