"From the very beginning it was agreed that this whole process would be extended to other hospitals in the area," said Dora, who expects to begin contacting other health care facilities at the end of the summer. The DOVE Project has a funding guarantee of three years from Memorial Health Foundation, and additional support will be critical for the future. Most important is that all health care facilities have the potential to screen for domestic violence and connect victims with needed services.

"...Our advocates were very adamant about saying, ‘You can’t just go to one hospital – there are other women who are being seen for domestic violence at other area emergency rooms,’" said Laurel Eslinger, adding that advocates frequently ask when referrals might start from other hospital locales.

It’s likely that expansion, and increasing Memorial’s staff involvement, will be paramount at upcoming meetings. From January of this year through April, Memorial referred almost forty victims of domestic violence to S-O-S, despite low rates of screening. Projections of what referral numbers might look like after an increase in Memorial’s screening frequency and the addition of other health care partners point to a significant rise in the numbers of women reached. "We believe in the long run that this is preventative," said Dora Reynolds, "but what it’s going to result in immediately is a higher reporting incidence." An important clarification is that the DOVE Project’s "reporting" has nothing to do with the legal system. The program does not require police involvement. "We will encourage it when we can," said Dora, "and when it looks like it should happen, but it isn’t mandatory. The woman’s safety is the central value here." An important element of the program concept is the delicate balance of having law enforcement close at hand without being so visible as to be a barrier to "reporting."

What About Men?

Currently, the DOVE Project screening protocol is applied only to women at the hospital, although planners are quick to point out that either gender can be victimized. As the program developed, the partner organizations agreed to focus on women for the time being, although men can be referred also.

"We knew there were more resources available to women," said Jan Howard, even though many staff felt strongly that all emergency room patients should be screened. Nonetheless, the availability of services makes the system stronger for women. Dora Reynolds adds however, that for the YWCA, "part of our agreement under this [project] is to provide more extensive outreach services to domestic violence survivors and to serve men."

As with many change-oriented activities, the DOVE Project’s effectiveness may need to be measured indirectly. Program partners expect:

An increase in domestic abuse cases detected in the Emergency Room and Child Birth Unit of Memorial Hospital;
An increase in the number of women who seek assistance for domestic violence through the YWCA, Madison Center and Memorial’s Behavioral Health Unit;
A probable increase in the number of domestic violence prosecutions in the county, although prosecution of abusers will not be a primary or secondary goal of the project, and;
An increase in domestic violence referrals from trained "helping" professionals to the YWCA and Madison Center.

For most of the outcomes outlined in the project proposal, more time is necessary to really draw definitive conclusions about the impact of the program. What’s certain is that the cases Memorial has identified in this year alone are cases that before were undetected – women who now have had an opportunity to begin taking steps to change and improve the safety and quality of their lives. A longer program run will determine how much the community resources brought to bear through the DOVE Project have helped them to do this. Education seminars and school programs will be developing throughout the coming year to work on raising community awareness of domestic violence in a broader cross-section of the community.

And so, DOVE continues to fly steadily into the face of an issue too frequently hidden. The simple fact that three strong community institutions have come together to address domestic violence in their communities is no small thing. Although some hospitals nation-wide have implemented similar projects, very few in Indiana have taken up the issue, despite projections that indicate thousands of victims may pass through their doors and leave again, no closer to breaking the cycle of violence than they were before.

"Having someplace where this issue is being addressed, and it’s safe and non-threatening – I think is real important," said Mark Chambers, Memorial Health Foundation Vice President. He admits his own belief that domestic violence is more prevalent than most of us would imagine, and that the more opportunities a community takes advantage of to try and intervene, the closer all of us will be to eliminating the problem. This is truly the inspiration beneath our wings.