In the US, the Department of Health and Human Services provides science-based healthcare objectives for the country in a document called Healthy People. Healthy People 2020 was released at the end of last year, and if you haven’t had a chance to see it (made easier by a pretty decent website), it’s worth looking at. Struggling to get your healthcare agency to continue supporting your program? Trying to explain to a judge or jury why what you do isn’t just evidence collection, but healthcare? Well, Healthy People is a good way to underscore this point–by looking at the Healthy People 2010 outcomes (like this one specific to IPV), and by pointing to what the country’s objectives are in the newest version.
You can check out all the Injury and Violence Prevention Objectives here (or download the PDF, if you want to distribute them at a team meeting). You can read the Healthy People 2010 Midcourse Review now (the Injury and Violence Prevention section can be found here), or sign up to receive notice when the final document becomes available.