Oct. 14 is Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day
By Moira McLaughlin
October 13, 2026
Shona Chavis remembers when her life as a survivor of domestic violence really changed.
She was meeting with her doctor, someone she had been seeing for about six years and who had been prescribing her medications to address migraines and fatigue. At each visit, the doctor would ask Shona, “How are you?” and Shona would say, “I’m good.” Then they would move on quickly to the exam, questions about prescriptions, and paperwork.
But at one visit, something different happened.
“Hey, Shona, how are you?” the doctor asked. And Shona, like always, responded, “I’m good.” But this time, instead of moving on quickly, the doctor turned around to face Shona and asked again, with intention and meaning, “How are you?”
For Shona, that space from her doctor made all the difference.
“It was like, for a moment somebody stopped and recognized [me], like, literally saw me. And I broke down, and I said, ‘I’m not okay, and I haven’t been okay.’ And I started just sharing with her everything that had been going on all of those years and how I’d been being beaten. She felt so bad because she didn’t know. And I didn’t tell her because there wasn’t space to tell her.”
Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day
Wednesday, October 14 marks 27 years of Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day, a day for healthcare professionals and advocates to raise awareness about supporting survivors of domestic violence.
FUTURES established the day and has trained thousands of federally funded health centers on building partnerships between health centers and domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy programs.
This work is important because:
- about 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men are impacted by intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and
- women who talk to their doctor about abuse are 2.6 times more likely to leave the relationship.
After Shona disclosed her abuse to her provider, Shona said, “We talked [but my provider] really didn’t know what to do because they weren’t trained in domestic violence. They didn’t have resources, and they weren’t connected to advocacy centers.”
Confidential Education and Support
Years later, Shona returned to the same healthcare center to lead a training on trauma-informed care as a Health Partnerships Coordinator for the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Shona’s training included CUES, which stands for Confidentiality, Universal Education and Support. Developed by FUTURES with Dr. Elizabeth Miller, a doctor with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, CUES is an evidence-based intervention to address domestic and sexual violence in health settings. It’s designed to assist health care staff and partners in initiating conversations on violence and abuse, with scripts, reminders, and using patient education safety cards.
“A lot of what we want is for healthcare providers to create an environment where people who have experienced violence feel comfortable disclosing their abuse so they can receive support,” said Anisa Ali, Program Manager at FUTURES.
“That is the core of what we’re trying to teach with CUES. We know domestic violence is pervasive and there are a lot of reasons [a survivor] doesn’t disclose, so with CUES they have support even if they don’t disclose.”
FUTURES’ redesigned website, IPV Health, offers healthcare providers extensive resources to:
- adopt CUES,
- build partnerships with domestic violence programs in your community,
- educate staff on supporting and responding to domestic violence, and
- download and print resources.
In addition, check out Health Partners on IPV and Exploitation for resources specifically for health center staff, watch FUTURES’ recent webinar on the importance of partnering with survivors, and listen to the podcast Seeding Safety on cultivating health, healing, and violence prevention
Layers of Impact
Part of Shona’s work includes giving a presentation on the effects of domestic violence on survivors, called “Layers.” Shona lists different traumatic events that have happened to a survivor, and one at a time, audience members add blankets on top of a volunteer sitting alone in a chair at the front of the room. Some blankets are heavy, others light, but regardless at the end, the volunteer is hot and uncomfortable under all the blankets that symbolize all the trauma.
“I look at the person in the chair, and they have all of these layers on them. And I say, ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ They try, but they can’t because the layers are too heavy. And it’s at that moment that I say to the audience, it’s easy for us to say, ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ But we don’t see the invisible bars. And those invisible bars are her layers.”
It’s important, Shona said, that healthcare providers work to remove those layers, not add to them.
“Sometimes healthcare [providers are] waiting for the survivor to tell the whole story, when the story may already be showing up in pieces, in hesitation, missed appointments, changes in behavior, reproductive health decisions, injuries, fear, or even in the way someone answers, ‘I’m fine.’ A provider does not have to become a detective or peel back every layer,” Shona said.
“Sometimes the most important thing they can do is create a space safe enough that the survivor does not feel they have to keep protecting those layers.”
For more information on how you can spread awareness about the day, including downloadable social media graphics and activities, go to Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day.
