PRESS RELEASE

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Health Policy Institute of Ohio
(614) 224-4950

Study Finds Family Violence a “Hidden Crisis” for Ohio

A new report commissioned by the Anthem Foundation of Ohio with support from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio finds that family violence in Ohio is as devastating to community life and economic growth as issues which receive far more public attention, such as mortgage foreclosures and the loss of manufacturing jobs. According to the White Paper on Improving Family Violence Prevention in Ohio, last year in Ohio more than

• 64,000 children were abused or neglected;
• 166,000 people were physically or sexually assaulted by an intimate partner;
• 29,000 elders were abused or neglected.

Among all Ohio residents, at least 14 percent of children will be maltreated at some point before age 18. In addition, nearly one in four women will be a victim of intimate partner violence in her lifetime, while at least 3 percent of elders will be abused. Each year family violence directly costs Ohio more than $1.1 billion in health care and social services. Moreover, family violence is linked to a surprisingly wide range of outcomes, from lost worker productivity and housing instability, to smoking, obesity and chronic disease.

“Our findings are truly disturbing,” said project co-director Kenneth Steinman, assistant professor at The Ohio State University College of Public Health. “Family violence affects a large number of people in Ohio each year. However, this is almost a hidden crisis, with the general public and many state leaders unaware of just how widespread and costly family violence is to both individuals, families, and our entire community.”

The white paper was created by the Ohio Family Violence Prevention Project, a group of academic researchers, agency personnel and practitioners with decades of experiences in dealing with family violence. Kenneth Steinman and Timothy Sahr, Director of Research at the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, were project directors. The Anthem Foundation of Ohio provided project funding.

“The Anthem Foundation of Ohio has been committed to providing grant funding throughout Ohio to support local initiatives to help prevent family violence,” said Teresa Wukusick, director of The Anthem Foundation of Ohio. “We felt it was imperative we fund this study to show the detrimental effects family violence has on society.”

The report finds that because of the complex causes and consequences of family violence, efforts to address family violence are scattered across numerous agencies in the state. Most funding is spent investigating suspected cases of abuse, yet limited resources and other issues undermine state agencies ability to identify victims and offer services. For example, each year only 31 percent of abused or neglected children and only 8 percent of abused or neglected elders actually receive victims’ services.

To successfully address family violence, Ohio must also consider planned efforts at prevention. Broadly defined, a successful approach will: engage and coordinate multiple agencies; focus on communities and perpetrators, not just individuals and victims; and consider both research findings and practitioner feedback. In addition, the White Paper identified several programs and practices that can strengthen families and prevent violence from beginning. Studies from three different cities, for example, found that nurses making regular, structured home visits to low-income first-time mothers may prevent many cases of child maltreatment. Economic analyses of these programs concluded that they yield $2.88 to $5.68 in cost savings for every $1 invested.

Among the specific recommendations in the report is to increase the quality of home visitation programs, create school environments that promote healthy relationships, support county-level inter-agency demonstration projects to target elder abuse, and expand training and awareness of elder abuse among banking professionals.

For more information on this white paper, including specific definitions of family violence and the paper’s different recommendations, please download the paper and executive summary.

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