Best Practices: Detection of Intimate-Partner Violence Among Members of a Managed Behavioral Health Organization

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This column describes a creative effort on the part of a national behavioral managed care plan to identify cases of domestic violence in its covered population. Although the screening efforts by intake counselors and clinicians yielded a lower rate of domestic violence than would have been expected, the effort established a baseline or benchmark from which the organization can now work. Clinical benchmarks are critical to developing an understanding of best practices. In this case, the benchmark finding initiated a best practices process through which this organization--and, hopefully, others--will continue to create better methods for identifying and helping people who experience domestic violence.