Skip to contents
In This Issue:
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness month, a time when many people across the country are reflecting on intimate partner violence and what they can do about it.
National statistics about domestic violence are alarming. One in four women has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime, and three out of four people personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence.
Decreasing that number is something that Idalia Carrasco, MSW, LICSW, strives for every day as a patient advocate at Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center and program manager for BWH Passageway, which seeks to improve the health, well-being and safety of those experiencing abuse from an intimate partner. Carrasco provides support to survivors of domestic violence and shares resources with those living in unsafe environments.
"I believe that we all can play a role in bringing awareness to this social issue that often lives in the shadows," said Carrasco, who has worked at Passageway for nine years.
Employees throughout Brigham and Women's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital are also raising domestic violence awareness by participating in a campaign called "Do No Harm."
The campaign features frontline staff, hospital leadership and patients holding a sign that reads "Do No Harm" and sharing their own personal messages of hope and inspiration.
In addition, employees can stop by information tables on the second floor mezzanine, across from Shop on the Pike, to fill out a pledge card that reads, "These Hands Do No Harm." The cards will be on display through the end of October.
Last year alone, Passageway staff provided intervention and services to more than 1,200 people throughout BWH and its distributed campus and in the community, said Mardi Chadwick, JD, director of Violence Intervention and Prevention Programs in the BWH Center for Community Health and Health Equity.
"Domestic violence is a public health issue that must be treated through both our intervention and prevention efforts," said Chadwick. "Raising awareness is the first step to ending the devastating cycle of violence we experience in our lives and in our communities. It is a disease that impacts us all, and therefore we all must be part of the solution."
In addition, the Center for Community Health and Health Equity is hosting a series of events this month to honor survivors of domestic violence and provide additional information and support.