ABSTRACT
As of January 1994, California physicians are required to report to police all patients who are suspected to be victims of domestic violence. This article describes the results from a focus group study of abused women (n = 51) that explored their experiences with and perspectives on medical care. The eight focus groups included two Latina (total n = 14), two Asian (total n = 14), two African-American (total n = 9), and two Caucasian (total n = 14) groups of women who had been the victims of domestic abuse within the previous 2 years. The women were recruited through community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. With regard to physician reporting of domestic violence to police, five themes were identified: fear of retaliation by the abuser, fear of family separation, mistrust of the legal system, desire for police protection, and preference for confidentiality and autonomy in the patient-health professional relationship. Our results indicate that mandatory reporting may pose a threat to the safety and well-being of abused women and may create barriers to their seeking help and communicating with health care professionals about domestic violence.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Health , Domestic Violence/legislation & jurisprudence , Law Enforcement , Mandatory Reporting , Physicians/legislation & jurisprudence , Adult , Black or African American , Asia/ethnology , Attitude to Health/ethnology , Black People , California , Communication , Confidentiality , Domestic Violence/ethnology , Ethnicity , Family Relations , Fear , Female , Focus Groups , Freedom , Health Services Accessibility , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Latin America/ethnology , Middle Aged , Personal Autonomy , Physician-Patient Relations , Police/legislation & jurisprudence , Safety , San Francisco , White PeopleABSTRACT
1. Federal regulations mandate that elderly persons with mental retardation are provided with specialized programming which meets with the needs of the individual. 2. Behavior modification techniques employed to provide services to elderly persons with mental retardation may not meet individual patient needs, lacks constructs which apply to nursing philosophy/process and is difficult to implement with today's limited resources. 3. The philosophy of Applied Humanism may be more congruent with nursing practice, can be utilized with nursing process and can meet the individual needs of elderly patients with mental retardation.
