The Oregon Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence (OCADSV) Annual Conference is a three-day conference that brings together healthcare providers, advocates, and community partners throughout the state to learn, network and develop new tools to take back to their communities to benefit survivors of domestic and sexual violence. This conference is the only statewide gathering focused on deepening and strengthening our shared systems to serve and advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
The Honorable Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon Attorney General, will keynote, as well as Lisa James, Director of Health at Futures Without Violence, and is the recipient of the American Medical Associations’ Citation for Distinguished Service for her efforts to train health care providers on domestic violence.
Presenters from across the state and nation convene with over 200 of Oregon’s service providers to provide innovative and interactive workshops addressing key themes. This year’s conference will feature three special tracks on Equity, Healthcare and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and Advocacy.
The Healthcare and Intimate Partner Violence track features information on integrating Adverse Childhood Experiences research into healthcare settings to address IPV, trauma-informed care for survivors in clinical settings, best practice assessments for IPV in clinical settings, reproductive coercion, improving sexual health in youth populations, and presentations on new pilot programs between healthcare organizations and domestic violence and sexual assault response agencies. CMEs will be available for select workshops.
Communities are finding new and innovative ways to make sure survivors of domestic violence have better access to healthcare services in Oregon’s healthcare transformation efforts. Several pilot projects will be featured at the conference, including the Department of Justice’s co-located advocacy pilot project called Safer Futures. Speaking to this work on health and domestic violence, Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum said “Safer Futures is a vital partner in Oregon’s health care community. We are committed to working together to ensure that women who are survivors of intimate partner violence have access to resources for living safe and healthy lives.”
Access to healthcare for survivors of domestic violence not only has unique challenges, but also has devastating costs which underscore the need for increased access. A U.S. Department of Justice study
found that 37% of all women who sought care in hospital emergency rooms for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. Access to health care is especially important for those survivors who are still currently in an abusive relationship. A recent study found of the 44% of survivors of domestic violence who reached out to someone about the abuse; over a third of those women spoke with their health care provider. Additionally, approximately 80% of the patients studied reported that they would like their healthcare providers to ask them privately about domestic violence. Access to health care is not only access to health, but also is access to an independent life, free from abuse.
For more information about this conference visit ocadsv.org, call 503.230.1951 or email [email protected]. For more information on how health care providers can connect with survivors of domestic violence, or to partner with your local domestic violence prevention organization, please contact Sarah Keefe, the Health Systems Program Coordinator at the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence at 503.230.1951 or email [email protected].
