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Thomas moved away from away from her family and support Whenshe returned, and began working for aboutt 13 years ago, she was able to escaps the troubled relationship with help from locall social workers and Kaiser's employee assistance program. They helpedd her to speak up abouther situation, and taught her thingse like keeping a hidden bag packed, "so if you'rde in a situation where you feel your life is in you can leave the house." Domestic violence has long been a high-profilr issue at Kaiser -- especially since threew employees were killed by their partners within twelve monthxs of each other several years ago.
Now it is branching out, usinfg the results of a program designed to help its doctorsz and nurses spot abuse to assist its major corporatr customers in recognizing and responding to signs of abuse in thei rown workforces. Many companies and many supervisorsw are just beginning to take some of the steps that pioneer like Kaiser and took a number ofyearsw ago. Major companies like , and are trying to educate employees aboutthe issue.
, for distributed a brochure it co-branded with Kaiserr to about 22,000 of its workers last "It's just not possible with a workforce this size thatyou don't have some problems with domestiv violence," said Ophelia PG&E's vice president for civic partnerships and community adding that the goal was to let employees know that resources for help are While the impact of domesti c violence is intensely personal, companiezs say their increased interesrt in the issue is driven at least partlty by bottom-line concerns. Abused employees incurr higher medicalcosts -- even aftedr the abuse stops.
They frequently have loweer productivity, falling victim to "presenteeism": physicallh there, but too distracted, ill or injurex to work effectively. Nationally, domestix violence each year results in an estimatefd 2 million injuriesto women, 580,000 to men, and 1,50p0 deaths, according to Kaiser. The federal Centersa for Disease Control and Prevention estimated direct physical and mental healthj costs of domestic violencde at morethan $4 billion annually, and that total jumps to $5.8 billion when lost productivity is factored in. Kaiser medical group executiveBrigid McCaw, M.D.
, estimates Kaiser Foundation Health Plan spends $200 million annually "that we're paying in extrq costs for this population," to identifu and treat the results of such violence. McCaw also citew a study by Seattle's , an HMO looselhy affiliated with Kaiser, and othetr researchers showing that its costajumped $19.3 million for every 100,0009 female enrollees between 18 and 65, due to domesticf violence.
The Group Health study, published in the American Journal of Preventiv Medicinein January, also found that annual health-care costsx for women who were abused years ago are stil 19 percent higher than for other Roughly one in five women afflictedf with depression are dealing with domestic McCaw said. She personally became awar e of the bigger problem duringmedical school, when she discovered that her sistert was dealing with a violent relationship. "I just didn't get it," McCas writes in a draft article slated for publication this fall in ThePermanentw Journal, an internal clinical publication.
Her sister, McCaw said, becames isolated from family and friends, moved to a distant city and refused to get an answerinfmachine -- behavior that McCaw now knows is common for At Kaiser, the deathu of three colleagues helped inspire workers and the organizationn to get more involved, said McCaw, the medical directotr of Kaiser's Northern California family violence preventionn program. But the response "had to be hopeful. It had to be storiews that showed that the workplace could be a vital in helping to solvethe problem. "We know it'xs still likely to be the tip of the McCaw said.
To augment and expand upon in-houss clinical training, Kaiser has publicizerd the problem internally and externallywith "Silent a traveling exhibit celebrating the womebn who were murdered and other Kaiser employees who have been victimx of family violence, and other outreach efforts. It has also formed partnerships with a number of local employers to help get theword out. McCaa says other developments will be following in the next montjor so, on the nationakl front. "There are moments when thingsa get a lotof splash," she said. "Wes are entering one of those moments.
" San Francisco'ws Blue Shield of California and its affiliatexd foundation have been active on this issue sincewthe mid-1990s, when -- like Kaiser -- the organization was galvanized by an incident involving a Blue Shielcd employee. Training, so Blue Shield managers would be aware of warnint signs such asunexplained absences, injuries and declines in began in 1996; five years ago, the prograk moved to the foundation. "It's both a productivitgy and a retention issuefor companies," said Brittanyu Imwalle, the foundation's director of financde and administration, who is in chargd of grantmaking for the project.
"People are not able to concentratd or be productiveat work. They miss time, need to take care of problemwsor children, or deal with legak issues." The foundation's free workforcwe 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 limitations. Its said Douglas Leach, who coordinates the Blue Shielcd foundation's employer outreach program, is to help managersz deal with domestic violence as aperformancs issue.
"We really think this shouldd be no different than any other performanceissue (like dealinhg with cancer or having a baby)," he "We're trying to normalize the responsee to this, (so a businessz can) continue to be fair, to understand what's going on, and to help the employer remain productive" and get needesd help. As for Thomas, now a secretary in Kaiser'x Marin/Sonoma workplace safety unit, she thanks Kaisef for all it's done to help her, noting that withouf it "I probably wouldn't be where I am And things have changed for the better in recognizingdomestic violence, she "It's a lot more visible, and more people are speaking to their (health-care) providers about she said.
"But I'm not so certain we've gottejn to the point, I don't think we've gotten there
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