Missed Opportunities: Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence in the Emergency Department

My talk will be about the importance of recognizing and adequately treating survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence (DV/IPV) in the Emergency Department. I completed residency and now work in downtown Chicago and have personally witnessed the innumerable cases of DV/IPV sky rocket. In Illinois, DV/IPV mortality is on the rise, with 2025 being the deadliest year yet with rates exceeding that of California and New York combined. DV/IPV is also now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury in the country, overtaking all other forms of blunt force trauma. While the research is still growing, there is strong data to suggest that 15-70% of survivors present to the ED for a DV/IPV related complaint in the 2-3 years before their death. This indicates a huge potential for identification and intervention that we as ED providers are likely missing due to lack of training, resources and crowding issues in our department. This is dually a public health, clinical and policy challenge for the next few years. As a DV/IPV researcher and social medicine fellow, my presentation will seek to move the audience past commonly cited issues of under-recognition and belief that survivors are stuck in helpless cycles to innovative approaches to this challenge. I will highlight research (both my own as well as others) on the data behind lethality assessments, data regarding various screening tools and presentations that increase likelihood of future mortality, and innovative ED centric interventions that meaningful impact a survivors trajectory. This presentation is a summary of existing work on DV/IPV in front line settings while also being a call to action for ED providers to move beyond conventional understanding of care for survivors.