Interpersonal Violence

The Strengthening the Connections to Opportunities for Prevention Engagement (SCOPE) project will create a pathway for children and families from the City of Hartford to connect with a Connecticut Children's Care Coordinator (CC) in an effort to reduce levels of violence exposure.

The goal of this study is to increase primary care professional's ability to identify individuals exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) in primary health care settings. The main questions it aims to answer are 1. To what extent do the following three interventions contribute to identify potential victims of IPV: (1) the use of a standardized questionnaire that screens exposure to IPV, (2) staff using tailored virtual patients for clinical training on IPV and (3) a combination of interventions 1 and 2? 2. Which intervention do primary care professionals experience as most effective in increasing the ability to identify and respond to victims of IPV? Participants will be divided to apply one of the three interventions in their health care setting: 1) a standardized questionnaire to patients, 2) virtual patients tailored to health professionals, and 3) a combination of 1 and 2. Pre-and post-measurement of the health professionals identification of patients exposed to IPV will will be used to explore the effect of the interventions. Focus group interviews with the participating health professionals will be a qualitative complement. The participants will be asked about what intervention they experience as the most effective in increasing the ability to identify victims of IPV.