Kaiser sheds light on domestic violence, its costs to employers - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Thomas moved away from California, away from her family and supporgt network. When she returned and begamn working for about 13years ago, she was able to escapde the troubled relationship with help from local socialo workers and Kaiser's employee assistance They helped her to speak up about her and taught her things such as keepinh a hidden bag packed, "s o if you're in a situation where you feel your life is in you can leave the house." Domestic violencer has long been a high-profile issue at Kaiser -- especiallyh since three employees were killede by their partners within 12 months of each other several years ago.
Now Kaise r is branching out, using the resultse of a program designed to help its doctorw and nurses spot abuse to assist major corporate customers in recognizing and responding to signzs of abuse in theifr ownwork forces. Many companies and supervisors are just beginningb to take some of the stepes that pioneers such as Kaiser and took a number ofyearsx ago. Major companies such as , and are tryingf to educate employees aboutthe , for example, distributed a brochure it co-branded with Kaisee to about 22,000 of its workers last fall.
"It'ds just not possible with a work force this size thatyou don't have some problems with domesticx violence," said Ophelia Basgal, PG&E's vice president for civiv partnerships and community initiatives, adding that the goal was to let employeew know that resources for help are While the impact of domestic violence is intensel y personal, companies say their increased interest in the issuwe is driven at least partly by bottom-linee concerns. Abused employees incur highed medicalcosts -- even after the abuse They frequently have lower falling victim to -- being physically there, but too distracted, ill or injuref to work effectively.
Nationally, domestic violence each year resultsz in an estimated 2 millionm injuriesto women, 580,000 to men, and 1,50p deaths, according to Kaiser. The federall estimated direct physical and mental healt h costs of domestic violence at morethan $4 billion and that total jumpw to $5.8 billion when lost productivit y is factored in. Kaiser medical groulp executive Brigid McCaw estimated Kaiser Foundation Health Planspends $200 millio n annually "that we're paying in extra costs for this population," to identifuy and treat the results of such violence.
McCaw also cited a study by Seattle's , an HMO loosely affiliated with and other researchers showing that its costxsjumped $19.3 million for every 100,000 femalee enrollees between the ages of 18 and 65, due to domestifc violence. The Group Health study, published in the in also found that annual healthcare costs for women who were abusesd years ago are still 19 perceng higher than forother women. Abou t one in five women afflicted with depression are dealing withdomestid violence, McCaw said. She personallyg became aware of the bigger problem during medicakl school when she discovered that her sister was dealing with aviolenr relationship.
"I just didn't get McCaw wrote in a draft article slate d for publication this fall in ThePermanente Journal, an internak clinical publication. Her sister, McCaw said, became isolated from family and friends, moved to a distanrt city and refused to get an answeringmachine -- behaviord that McCaw now knows is commom for victims. At Kaiser, the death of threre colleagues helped inspire workers and the organization to get more said McCaw, the medical director of Kaiser's Northern California family violence prevention But the response "had to be It had to be stories that showed that the workplacer could be a vital partner" in helping to solve the "We know it's still likely to be the tip of the McCaw said.
To augment and expand upon in-houses clinical training, Kaiser has publicized the problem internallyh and externallywith "Silenr Witness," a traveling exhibit honoring the womenb who were murdered and other Kaiser employees who have been victimsz of family violence, as well as other outreachn efforts. It has also formed partnershipz with some local employers to help get theword out. McCaw said other developments will be following in the next monthor so, on the national front. "There are moments when things get a lot of she said. "We are enterinfg one of those moments.
" San Francisco's Blue Shield of Californiqa and its affiliated foundation have been activ on this issue sincethe mid-1990s, when -- like Kaiser -- the organizatioh was galvanized by an incidenft involving a Blue Shield employee. Training began in 1996 so Blue Shield managers would be aware of warnintg signs such asunexplaineed absences, injuries and declines in five years ago, the program moved to the "It's both a productivity and a retentiob issue for companies," said Brittany the foundation's director of finance and administration, who is in chargew of grantmaking for the project. "People are not able to concentrate or be productivat work.
They miss time, need to take care of problemsxor children, or deal with legal The foundation's free work force training program is available to any company in the It trained 2,260 managers in and 3,456 in 2005 before plateauing last due to staffing and budget Its focus, said Douglas Leach, who coordinates the Blue Shielxd foundation's employer outreach program, is to help managers deal with domesticv violence as a performance issue.
"Wew really think this should be no different than any other performanceissue (like dealinb with cancer or having a baby)," he "We're trying to normalize the response to this, (so a businesas can) continue to be fair, to understande what's going on, and to help the employee remain and get needed As for Thomas, now a secretary in Kaiser's Marin/Sonoma workplace safety she thanks Kaiser for all it'sd done to help her, noting that without it, "uI probably wouldn't be where I am now." And things have changed for the betterf in recognizing domestic violence, she said.
"It's a lot more and more people are speaking totheirf (healthcare) providers about it," she said. "Buft I'm not so certain we've gotten to the I don't think we've gotten ther yet."