Dr Joy Browne, WOR

TK Logan, PHD

William Hampton, MD

Psychiatry. Greenwich Hospital

Alice Rusk, MD

Neurology, Yale Group

TK Logan, PHD

Associate Professor, U of KY

Gregory L. Boris, DO

Chairman Emergency Services

Griffin Hospital

Joseph Connelly, MD

Chairman Family Practice

Stamford Hospital

Ellen Sutherland, MD

Pediatrics

Nicolette Andrews, MD

Internal Medicine

Sandra Lancaster, R.N. MPH Health Services  Coord.

Mary Badoyanis, Esq

Judicial Training

Suzanne Adam C.C.T

YWCA, Domestic Abuse

Kimberley Russo

Program Manager

Domestic Abuse Services

Fran Rock

Court Advocate

In collaboration with:

Re: Letter of Interest for education for the disable on domestic abuse

This is an initial approach letter for a grant to disseminate information on intimate partner violence and abuse of disabled 45+ age women. Studies have shown a direct link between abuse and health in older women. (6) (7), Disabled women have also shown a 4-10 times greater risk of abuse than other women. A big problem for this group is that abuse is more likely to go unnoticed and unmentioned. Psychological abuse is the most probable cause as it is more likely to create chronic conditions and disabilities with no apparent physical findings such as marks or obvious injuries. This age group has been overlooked and needs more education and intervention.

Our goal is to help decrease disability, health care costs and unnecessary preventable suffering associated with domestic abuse by educating the most affected group. The overall cost of this abuse has been estimated to be as high as $45-50 billion per year.

With better training and education for health care providers, as well as disabled women, devastating problems, such as injuries, chronic illnesses, and undiagnosed mental illnesses could be prevented.  Though more educational material has become available in the last few years, a significant amount of work remains to be done in the area of dissemination of this material to that age and specific population.

Our main objectives are to:

1. Disseminate more information about domestic abuse and health related consequences.

2. Train health care providers in recognizing and addressing domestic abuse in chronically ill or disabled patients.

3.   Educate women to correlate their health problems with their abusive situation.

In this presentation we are proposing for your foundation to help us to provide more educational material to address this issue. Please find enclosed an Executive Summary. We look forward to your reply and would be pleased to send you a full proposal.

 Warm regards,

 The Board of Directors