From lily@endabuse.org" American Indian/Alaska Native Health Domestic Violence (AI-AN Health DV) Listserv _________________________ Table of Contents 1. Grant Announcement _________________________ Copyright 2003 Bangor Daily News Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine) February 26, 2003 Wednesday All Editions SECTION: B; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 411 words HEADLINE: Tribe gets grant for abuse awareness; Maliseets to develop $50,000 pilot program as part of national effort BYLINE: WAYNE L. BROWN, OF THE NEWS STAFF DATELINE: LITTLETON BODY: The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians has been awarded a $50,000 grant to develop a pilot program to increase awareness of domestic violence within the Indian community. The Maliseets are one of six American Indian pilot sites chosen across the country to develop culturally appropriate prevention strategies and resources for health care providers and victims of domestic abuse. The pilot sites were selected as part of the Indian Health Service's Administration for Children and Families Domestic Violence Pilot Project. American Indian women are particularly vulnerable to abuse, Esta Soler, president of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, said in a press release announcing the grant awards. "Too often, [health care] providers are not trained about domestic violence, and culturally appropriate resources are not available," she said. Though unusually high rates of domestic violence are not the norm within the Maliseet community, there still need to be resources in place to deal with such issues when they first become evident and before they escalate, Jane Root-Sylvain, domestic violence response program coordinator for the HBMI, said Tuesday during a telephone interview. One of the goals of the Maliseet Health Department will be to develop procedures whereby any woman age 14 or older who comes to the Maliseet Health Clinic for whatever reason will be screened for possible exposure to domestic violence. Doctors and other health care providers who work at the clinic will be trained to ask specific questions that could provide clues to possible domestic violence issues. "This is not happening" at the clinic or to any large degree at any of the hospitals across the state, Root-Sylvain said. Having worked for the Battered Women's Project in Aroostook County for nine years before going to work for the Maliseets four years ago, Root-Sylvain said she was often told by domestic violence victims that, if a doctor had asked them if they were victims of abuse, they would have said they were. Ideally, Root-Sylvain said, the trained doctors would use the new screening procedures in their practices away from the tribal clinic as well, and eventually other health care providers would get involved, too. The procedures and educational materials developed in the Maliseet program will be pooled with similar information from the other pilot sites for distribution to American Indian health care facilities across the country. LOAD-DATE: February 26, 2003 From lily@endabuse.org" Get Ready! Our second project meeting is only a week away. We will have roughly 45 people attending. There are several outstanding speakers who will join us for the two days. Extra time has also been added to the end of each presentation for Q & A and group discussion. For this meeting, please make sure your team brings the following: * copy of your domestic violence policy and procedures: bring whatever draft you have of this. If you do not currently have a p&p, please bring any other materials that will help inform your development of this. We will be working on this during a break-out session. * copy of your workplace domestic violence policy and procedures: again, please bring whatever draft, or materials you have on this. * copy of your tribal codes, hospital reporting policies, or other information related to domestic violence reporting requirements (by healthcare providers) in your area: these will help inform our legal discussion on Day II. * any public education or patient materials you have created for your healthcare facility that you would like to share with the group. * any other materials you would like to share with the group: enough copies for 50. If you have handouts that you would like included in the meeting binder, e-mail (or mail) them to anna@endabuse.org no later than this Wednesday. If you have any questions about the meeting, please call me directly. I look forward to seeing you all soon! Anna Marjavi Program Specialist Family Violence Prevention Fund 383 Rhode Island St., Suite 304 San Francisco, CA 94103-5133 p 415.252.8900 f 415.252.8991 anna@endabuse.org TTY: (800) 595-4889