Domestic Violence Reporting and Referral Project

Speakers will present on the Domestic Violence Report and Referral (DVRR) Project which was designed to create a seamless bridge between emergency departments, law enforcement, and the Alameda County Family Justice Center (FJC) in Oakland California.

The DVRR is an electronic report interface that combines the DV mandatory report, Danger Assessment, and “warm hand off” to the FJC in one simple step. In the pilot DV education for hospital staff was provided along with a secure web based tool that can be accessed by computer or tablet to the county hospital emergency department /trauma center. In the first-year Alameda County has successfully doubled the number of reports submitted to law enforcement, and increased the number of Emergency Department Domestic Violence patients receiving services from at the Family Justice Center from 4% to 47%.

The DVRR tool was developed with a grant from the Blue Shield California Foundation with the goals of 1) Simplifying the mandatory reporting process for health care providers; 2) Standardizing the data collected in the reports and improving the forensic value of the report by including images; 3) Creating a direct referral to the FJC (with patient consent) by providing the navigators with safe contact information to call the patient directly.