IPV Screening in Health Care Clinics in Rural South Carolina

The purpose of this study is to implement universal screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) and to test two clinic-based interventions for women who screen positive for current or recent IPV. The study population will be implemented in Pee Dee region of the state of South Carolina and will include primarily low-income women who seek care at selected primary health care clinics in the region.

In this study, all women 18 and older receiving care at selected primary care clinics will be offered screening for IPV annually. Clinicians will use a structured screening tool to assess physical, sexual, and psychological IPV in a current relationship (IPV+) or IPV experienced by the woman in the past five years (Recent IPV). Clinics will be randomly assigned to implement a clinic-based intervention for women who screen positive for current or recent IPV. Two interventions will be implemented using a factorial design. In the Empowerment-Focused Patient Education Intervention, clinicians will conduct a 7-session intervention focusing on the health and well-being of the woman and attempt to link women's IPV experience with their health. In the IPV Services Intervention, IPV Specialists who are trained advocates from the Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault (PDC) will be based in the clinic to (a) counsel women about IPV including safety planning, (b) provide linkages to PDC services, and (c) link women to clinic-based support groups developed specifically for this project.

We hypothesize the intervention(s) will change (a) clinician screening, referral, and IPV documentation patterns, (b) clinician IPV knowledge and perceived skills in working with women who have experienced IPV and their children (c) women's help-seeking behaviors, risk of poor mental and physical health, and (d) women's risk of subsequent IPV victimization. To evaluate these outcomes, we will survey clinicians and prospectively follow a group of consenting IPV+ women (N=300 in each intervention arm) to assess changes in their help-seeking, health behavior and status, IPV experience over two-years of follow-up.