The role of the health professionals in cases of domestic violence: the report of an experience.

Abstract

It is a report on an experience – a volunteer apprenticeship carried out at Viva Maria Passage Home located in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This study aimed at learning about the domestic violence issue, identifying the role of the health professionals in the care to women who are victims of violence and performing activities with the dwellers and their children. Such activities comprised workshops on health education. The clientele involved women and their children who lived in the passage home between August and December 2001. The men-tioned experience evidences the possibility of breaking up the violence chain that links people who is submitted to it