“Hearing the woman’s story first-hand had a powerful effect on the audience. It really helped them understand what victims of abuse truly experience,” says Bobbi Martin-Haw, an organizer of the seminar and co-ordinator of the sexual assault program at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

Titled ‘Just Ask… Domestic Violence: Your Question Can Make the Difference,’ the seminar took place Oct. 22 during the YWCA Week Without Violence.

About 170 community service providers attended, such as police officers, public health nurses, hospital nurses, counsellors and Children’s Aid Society workers from the counties of Peterborough, Northumberland, Haliburton and the City of Kawartha Lakes.

“Our hope for the day was to get people thinking about how our community can work together to make it easier for women experiencing violence to seek help and not have to fear for their lives, their children or their finances,” explains Bobbi.

Former attorney-general Marion Boyd, the keynote speaker, discussed how the London community has developed an integrated community response to domestic violence. She also addressed the topic of universal screening, which involves asking every woman who comes to a hospital emergency department if they’ve experienced abuse.

Every community has different criteria for their universal screening program, says Bobbi. At the Peterborough Regional Health Centre, females aged 16 and up are screened, while other communities screen from ages 12 and up, and still others screen both females and males, she notes.

This kind of information is valuable and impactful, says Bobbi, since 22 to 40 per cent of women accessing emergency departments in Canada are doing so due to domestic violence-related complaints and injuries.

Also at the seminar, a panel of community service providers shared their resources with the group, adds Bobbi.

“I believe the participants came away with a better understanding of why people stay with abusive partners, how difficult it is to leave and to even talk about it. I think we planted the seeds in the community to make plans to work together, to partner, to develop a response that is a community response.”

The seminar was organized by the Women’s Health Care Centre at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre, and sponsored along with the Peterborough County-City Health Unit. Other organizers included representatives from the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Aid Society, Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service, the Victim/Witness Assistance Program, with support from the Peaceful Communities co-ordinators.

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