A Safety Paradox: Stay-at-Home Policies and Domestic Violence Risks

What happens when the very measures put in place to keep us safe and healthy instead place us at risk for harm? For women in abusive relationships, the stay-at-home strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19 can do just that.

A perfect storm of risk factors for escalating violence.

High stress levels, loss of a sense of control, unemployment, increased time together—all are known to increase the frequency and intensity of intimate partner violence (IPV). A study of IPV rates before and after Hurricane Katrina found a 98% increase in physical IPV and a 35% increase in psychological IPV against women after the hurricane, with stressors as one of the strongest predictors for increased violence. IPV rates are known to rise with unemployment rates; a study of IPV during the economic recession of 2007-2008 found that a rapid rise in unemployment led to increased violence and controlling behaviors. And multiple studies have found that IPV incidents occur at much higher rates on weekends and during the summer—times when couples spend more time together. With Covid-19, people are suddenly unemployed and experiencing stress due to economic hardship, fear of illness, and uncertainty about the future. And couples are now spending all their […]

2020-05-04T12:27:03-04:00May 4th, 2020|Nursing, Public health, women's health|0 Comments
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Control: Ninety, and Still Haunted by a Husband’s Dying Promise

I will forever be haunted by the passing of Mrs. Haley. On the final days of her life, I was deemed her best, last support, because I knew something about the dangers of control. Or so I thought.

Work that changes you.

‘I will know, and you will pay’

One aspect of having a diverse occupational history within the mental health field is that you take something with you from every experience. However, there was one job that I wanted to walk away from clean, having taken nothing. Prior to becoming a nurse, I worked as an advocate for a domestic violence shelter. The position involved community education, outreach advocacy, supportive therapy, and violence prevention school programs. Those five years of my life were a relentless and eye-opening study of the dangers of control.

Domestic abuse or intimate partner violence is all about control, about an unhealthy balance of power in an intimate relationship. Advocates in the shelter provide a voice for the victims who suffer from domestic violence. Anyone can be vulnerable, regardless of gender or identification. According to the CDC, one in four women have experienced intimate partner violence (and one in nine men). Intimate partner violence remains a pervasive undercurrent in our culture, one still supported […]

2019-04-05T09:50:54-04:00April 5th, 2019|Nursing|1 Comment
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Violence Against Women: Old Stories Repeat, But Some Progress

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Emergency lights #5, by DrStarbuck via Flickr Emergency lights #5, by DrStarbuck via Flickr

It seemed ironic that, during this month of domestic violence awareness, a Florida judge showed little awareness of the fear that intimate partner violence can instill. Judge Jerri Collins came under attack from victim advocacy groups after she jailed a young mother who was a victim of domestic violence for failing to show up in court to press charges against her husband. According to various news reports, the distraught woman was afraid to face her husband in court for his sentencing to 16 days for choking and threatening her with a knife. Advocates say the judge’s action sends a message that may result in many women not bringing charges against abusers.

According to the CDC report Intimate Partner Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions And Recommended Data Elements (version 2.0; 2015), “over 1 in 5 women (22.3%) and nearly 1 in 7 men (14.0%) have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime.” The real numbers are almost certainly higher, as many victims are afraid to report their partners for fear of retaliation once the abuser is released from jail. There are too […]

2016-11-21T13:01:51-05:00October 19th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, Patients|0 Comments
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AJN’s May Issue: Intimate Partner Violence, What Clinical Nursing Instructors Do, Containing Cholera, Noise in the ICU, More

AJN0514.Cover.OnlineAJN’s May issue is now available on our Web site. And in honor of Nurses Week, we are offering free access to the entire issue for the whole week (May 6-12). Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

Intimate partner violence. A major health care issue, intimate partner violence (IPV) affects almost 6% of U.S. women annually. And while prevalence rates of IPV are similar in rural and nonrural areas, rural survivors face distinct barriers in accessing care. “Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Areas: What Every Nurse Should Know” describes the unique aspects of IPV in rural populations and provides nurses with tools and information crucial to effective intervention. This CE feature offers 2.5 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article. And don’t miss a podcast interview with one of the authors (this and other podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article page on our Web site or, if you’re in our iPad app, by tapping the icon on the first page of the article).

Containing cholera. While still recovering from a magnitude-7 earthquake, Haiti confronted a second disaster: a rapidly growing cholera epidemic. The authors of “Responding to the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti,” part of a nongovernmental relief organization team sent to Haiti, describe how they managed more than 23,000 cases of cholera and […]

2016-11-21T13:04:55-05:00April 25th, 2014|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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