This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Domestic abuse funding for NHS
28/10/2003
NHSScotland has been awarded £300,000 to help
healthcare workers respond appropriately to victims of
domestic abuse.
The funding will be used to implement
guidelinesResponding to DomesticAbuse: Guidelines for Healthcare Workers
in NHSScotland
that provide health care workers with:
An overview of domestic abuse inScotland;
Information about the health effects of
domestic abuse and potential signs and
indicators of domestic abuse;
Practical advice about how to approach
the difficult task of talking about
abuse;
What should be in place to help health
care workers respond effectively to anyone
experiencing domestic abuse; and
Good practice for professionals to help
them inform and support women.
Speaking at a national seminar working toward
implementation of the guidelines inEdinburgh, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"The Executive is strongly committed to raising
awareness among professionals and the public about domestic
abuse. We are improving information about the scale
and the nature of the problem and ensuring women and
children get the protection and support they need, when
they need it.
"NHSScotland is in a unique position to contribute to
helping people who suffer violence get support. Virtually
every woman inBritainwill use the health care system at some point in her
life.
"That is why we produced these guidelines and,
working with my colleague Mary Mulligan, have secured
£300,000 to implement them. It is not only vital
that staff have the confidence and knowledge to give help
to those who seek it, they must also be able to identify
and respond to those who do not seek help and suffer in
silence."
The Executive has made available £18m over three
years from April 2001 torespond to domestic abuse. £4.5m of this is
to implement the Action Plan in the National Strategy to
Address Domestic Abuse in
Scotland. The £300,000 announced today is part of
this commitment.
The guidelines were published onMarch 10 2003and were prepared with help from a short-life working
group which included a wide range of health professionals
and other interests.
Statistics show that in 2001 the police returned
details of 35,800 incidents of domestic abuse inScotland, that equals an average of 700 reported incidents of
abuse per 100,000 population inScotland. There were 335 incidents of serious assault
and 13 people were murdered by their partners in the same
year
and the vast majority of this abuse is by
men, against women.