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Domestic Violence

What is Domestic Violence?

Domestic violence is defined as a pattern of behavior used by an individual to establish and maintain power and control over their intimate partner. The behavior includes abusive tactics, threats, and actions that may or may not rise to the level of criminal behavior. The victim may experience acts or threats of physical or sexual violence, as well as intimidation, humiliation, isolation, verbal abuse, and economic control. Domestic violence can affect people of any gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, socio-economic status, age, or religion.

Public Health Law 2805-z

The New York State Public Health Law was amended to include a new Section §2805-z, regarding Hospital Domestic Violence Policies and Procedures, effective December 23, 2020. With the proper training and tools, hospital staff can play a significant role in recognizing and responding to domestic violence, and in turn, improve patients' physical and emotional health and safety, and reduce domestic violence incidents.

Pursuant to this new law, every general hospital shall:

develop, maintain, and disseminate written policies and procedures for the identification, assessment, treatment and referral of confirmed or suspected cases of domestic violence;
establish and implement a training program for all nursing, medical, social work and other clinical personnel, and security personnel working in hospital service units on these policies and procedures;
designate a staff member to contact the domestic violence or victim assistance organization providing victim assistance to the geographic area served by the hospital to establish the coordination of services provided to domestic violence victims; and
upon admittance or commencement of treatment of a confirmed or suspected domestic violence victim, advise the victim of the availability of the services of a domestic violence or victim assistance organization, and contact the appropriate organization and request that a victim assistance advocate be provided if the domestic violence victim requests one.

Resources:

A list of domestic violence or victim assistance organizations operating in each county.
For information and support related to training for hospital staff, contact the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence at opdvtraining@opdv.gov.