Violence key cause of women’s injuries - expert

More women seek medical treatment for injuries resulting from domestic violence than any other cause, a conference hosted by Women’s Aid in Dublin Castle was told today.

According to Dr Evan Stark, a leading US expert on domestic violence research, injuries for which women seek medical attention include bruising, fractures, attempted strangulation, sexual assault and threatened or actual miscarriage.

Dr Stark told the conference that doctors and nurses tend to treat symptoms not cause. He said a lack of complete diagnosis and onward referral has serious consequences for women’s health, as it directly leads to a continuation of that violence.

The doctor also highlighted what he called "the repetitive nature of violence" because of the continued access the perpetrator has to the victim.

Dr Stark asked the conference to consider that although non-battered adults may make one injury visit to an emergency service in their lifetime, battered women average more than one such visit a year.

Director of Women’s Aid Ms Denise Charlton said it is "because of these strong links between domestic violence and a range of women’s health problems, that women experiencing violence tend to be over-represented in doctor’s surgeries, general practitioner’s surgeries and mental health services.

"This is also the reason why health practitioners are ideally placed to identify women who are experiencing abuse by a partner and intervene to support the woman," she said.

Women’s Aid have released a series of statistics on domestic violence in Ireland, which include:

• There have been 77 women murdered in Ireland since the beginning of 1996. All of the completed cases have been proven to be male perpetrated. Of the uncompleted cases, where charges have been preferred, it is a man who has been charged.

• Fifty of these women were killed in their own homes and the vast majority knew their murderer. Where the case is resolved, 19 out of the 44 women were murdered by a partner or ex-partner. In a substantial amount of these cases, there had been a history of domestic violence by the murderer.

• The Women's Aid Freephone Helpline (1800-341900) receives about 9,000 calls a year.