Committees

Health Committee

The Health Committee was one of the first committees created by the Council because of the key role that health practitioners play in women's lives. The Health Committee membership includes key representatives from the health sector including nurses, social workers, public health practitioners, staff of community health centers and doctors. The Committee provides a unique opportunity for information sharing between health care institutions and acts as a vehicle for integrated planning and policy development to create improved responses to woman abuse within the health care system.

Terms of reference for the Health Committee:

Collective advocacy
Encourage the development of connections with other sectors
Provide leadership with respect to Best Practice Guidelines
Provide support to organizations developing programs/policies related to woman abuse
Provide a venue for discussion of critical issues

The committee members achieve their goals through a number of activities including:

educational presentations
guest speakers
information sharing between members.

One of the Health Committee's accomplishments is a document outlining Best Practice Guidelines for Health Care Providers Working with Women Who Have Been Abused. First developed in 1998, this document was revised in 2003. Best Practice Guidelines for Health Care Providers highlights the issue of woman abuse in the health care sector and stresses the importance of communication with other sectors. The publication provides an introduction to the issue of woman abuse, definitions of key terms, describes the role of health care providers in addressing the issue and outlines appropriate levels of intervention.

In 2000, the Best Practice Guidelines Health Care Providers were reviewed by the Ontario Hospital Association. Recognizing the document as a useful and important addition to developing the capacity of the health care sector to appropriately respond to woman abuse, OHA printed the Guidelines and further distributed them to every member of the association across Ontario. Since that time, hospitals have used this document to support and facilitate significant changes in policy and programs. One major teaching hospital adopted a formal policy on responding to woman abuse cases, and another implemented a universal screening and support program. For more information see the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto’s Best Practice Guidelines for Health Care Providers Working with Women Who Have Been Abused.

Recently, the Health Committee created a policy paper to address approaches to abuse in health care settings. See "An Effective Approach to Intimate Partner Abuse in Health Care Settings: A Position Statement developed by The Health Committee of the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto." The Committee has also compiled resources and videos for health care providers, and is working toward holding a city-wide event to promote awareness of woman abuse within the health care sector.

The Health Committee meets monthly on the third Thursday of the month and is open to anyone involved in providing health care. For more information on the Health Committee and its initiatives, please contact 416-944-9242 or by e-mail at wact@womanabuse.ca.

Current Initiatives

Ongoing training opportunities: for health care practitioners. In conjunction with Women’s Voices for Action, many health committee members have organized training workshops for their hospitals, clinics or centres.

Planning for a City-wide Event: to promote awareness of woman abuse within the health care sector.

Promotion of Policy Paper: Effective Health Care Response to Woman Abuse: the Need to Ask about Abuse