Intervening in a situation of domestic violence can be very complicated and potentially very frightening. There are medical, legal, and safety issues, and your job is not to try and solve these. Your job is to try and recognize domestic violence, and to report it so that people with the experience can start a coordinated plan to stop the violence and make sure the victim is safe. You need to know that as a medical professional, you have a legal obligation to report physical, sexual, and/or emotional/psychological abuse. If you feel hesitant to do so, that is understandable. But remember: there are many resources available and even if there were no legal obligation to do so, reporting abuse should be done because there is no excuse for domestic violence, nobody deserves to be abused, and the abuse is not the fault of the victim.

• If someone is in immediate danger or a crime has just been committed, call 911 or the local police.

• If there is no immediate danger, call or notify your supervisor immediately.

• As previously mentioned, there are a lot of resources available to help the victims of domestic violence. The National Violence Domestic Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. This is a 24 hour, seven day a week service that can provide advice and assistance for people who are suffering from domestic violence.

It is very important, however, that you have a reasonable suspicion that domestic violence is actually happening. Don’t decide that someone is being abused on the basis of feelings or intuition. Make sure that your suspicions are based on objective information that can be observed, documented, and verified.