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College of Medicine and Dentistry Dentistry resources: responding to domestic and sexual violence The Basics

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The Basics

This scenario demonstrates a dentist applying the basic skills in recognising, responding, and referring patients who are鈥痸ictim-survivors of DSV.

Objectives of the Scenario

  • Demonstrate knowledge of foundational content on DSV
  • Demonstrate knowledge of indicators of DSV (recognise)
  • Demonstrate knowledge of how to ‘open the conversation’ about DSV (respond)
  • Demonstrate knowledge of how to refer a patient to a specialist DVS service (refer)

Video resource

This scenario demonstrates a dentist applying the basic skills in recognising, responding, and referring patients who are鈥痸ictim-survivors of DSV. The length of this video is 6:21 minutes

Print resource

dentist and patient talking in clinic.

This print resources includes:

  • Foundational content on DSV
  • Prompts to discuss the content in the video
  • Critical reflective questions
  • Links to relevant resources
Download the print resource

The following scripts are examples of how you can communicate with patients who are victim-survivors of DSV:

  • Screening
  • Opening the conversation
  • Risk assessment
  • Confidentiality
  • Potentially breaking confidentiality
  • Documentation
  • Trauma informed practice (following a disclosure of DSV)

Download the example scripts.

Please note

Each of the following scripts are examples only, and you will need to adapt them so they sound more ‘natural’ to you. Each time you use these scripts with a patient, you need to consider:

  • the patient’s particular circumstances
  • organisational policy and procedure
  • State/Territory legislative requirements
  • National legislative requirements
  • Requirements of your professional association.

Points to consider

  • self-care refers to activities to take care of our mental, emotional, and physiological well-being.
  • when working with people who have / are experiencing DSV, be attentive to signs of vicarious trauma.
  • concepts related to vicarious trauma include stress, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, empathetic distress, and burnout.
  • see the resources below for detailed information on the indicators of vicarious trauma and associated concepts.
  • ensure your workplace is enacting strategies to mitigate negative impacts of your work in general, and specifically in relation to vicarious trauma.

Relevant resources

There are many excellent resources on self-care and worker well-being available online or through specific worker training. Here are a few places you can start building your knowledge and skill set in relation to self-care, and mitigating vicarious trauma:

  • 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732):
  • : An anonymous national health and wellbeing support service for dental practitioners
  • For dental students: contact with your university’s student well-being service
  • For dentists employed in an organisation: contact the ‘employee assistance program’ connected with your organisation.
  • For dentists in private practice: contact the ‘Dental Practitioner Support’ service listed previously.
  • : has a 24 hour ‘Bush’ hotline in addition to online resources:
    • , with a focus on working in rural and remote locations.
  • : an article by Dr Kaejenn Tchia

Acknowledgements

This collaborative project to develop video scenarios and educational resources involved many people from dentistry, social work, the domestic and sexual violence sector, and victim-survivors of domestic and sexual violence. We extend our sincere appreciation to:

  • The following organisations: 番茄社区 Social Work; 番茄社区 Dentistry; 番茄社区 Dental Clinic; Cairns Regional Domestic Violence Service; Be Conscious; Warringu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation; Hudson Films; ADA-Dental Health Foundation.
  • The dentists who provided expert advice: Adjunct Associate Professor Andrew Lee, 番茄社区; Dr Julee Birch, ADA-Dental Health Foundation.
  • The people and organisations who participated in research that informed, and evaluated, the video scenarios and educational resources.
  • The research team: Dr Ann Carrington, Senior Lecturer, Social Work, 番茄社区 (番茄社区); Felicity Croker, Adjunct Associate Professor, Dentistry, 番茄社区; Dr Alex Dancyger, Lecturer, Dentistry, 番茄社区; Simone Dewar, Research Assistant, Social Work, 番茄社区; Dr Vinnitta Mosby, Lecturer, Social Work 番茄社区 – First Nations advisor.

We also acknowledge the generous contributions of the dentist, dental staff, and actor in this video:

  • Dentist: Dr. Sebby Collis
  • Actor: Liz Christensen
  • Dental Staff: Victoria Cushway

With special thanks to the victim-survivors of domestic and sexual violence who participated in this research, and generously and courageously shared their stories.

QLD Gov coat of arms

This project was funded by Queensland Government Department of Justice and Attorney General.

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