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You may notice the color purple popping up on BWH's Community Connects screens and elsewhere across the hospital more frequently this month.
It's the official color of October's National Domestic Violence Awareness month, and BWHers are already coming together to stand up against intimate partner violence.
One in four women in the U.S. has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime, and three out of four people personally know someone who is or has been a victim of domestic violence.
"Domestic violence seriously impacts the health and well-being of individuals and our community," said Mardi Chadwick, JD, director of Violence Intervention and Prevention Programs for the Center for Community Health and Health Equity (CCHHE). "Even if we are not personally affected by domestic violence, we know someone who is. As individuals and as a BWH/BWFH community, we have the opportunity to stand up, speak up and take action to end the ongoing cycle of abuse."
In collaboration with departments across BWH and BWFH, Passageway-a CCHHE program that strives to improve the health, well-being and safety of those experiencing intimate partner abuse-is working to change these alarming statistics. Part of BWH, BWFH and Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, the program is encouraging everyone to reflect on the importance of domestic violence prevention and bystander intervention this month and beyond. In the past fiscal year, Passageway provided services and intervention to 1,100 people throughout BWH and its distributed campus, BWFH and the community.
As part of the awareness month, BWH leaders, frontline staff and a patient are taking part in the second year of the "Do No Harm" media campaign. The campaign, which appears on the television screens across BWH and its distributed campus, features participants sharing personal messages of hope, support and inspiration to those experiencing domestic violence and the broader community.
Passageway is also organizing and facilitating several events this month to generate domestic violence awareness and to honor and support those affected by it. BWHers can stop by information tables on the second-floor mezzanine by the Shop on the Pike, on Oct. 10, 2-4 p.m., and Oct. 18, 23 and 28, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., to fill out a puzzle piece that explains how you are an "essential piece" to ending domestic violence in your community. The puzzle pieces will be on display through the end of October.
View the full list of activities at BWHPikeNotes.org, and stay tuned to BWH's social media pages to share your own "Do No Harm" photos.
BWH face transplant recipient Carmen Blandin Tarleton is part of BWH's "Do No Harm" campaign to spread domestic violence awareness.