The purpose of the study was to help identify the essential health care services for women related to intimate partner violence (IPV) during steady state conditions, determining whether the essential health care services related to IPV differ during public health emergencies (PHEs), and identifying strategies to sustain access to those essential health care services during PHEs.

During COVID-19, there was evidence that the prevalence and severity of IPV increased as individuals were forced into isolation and the availability of services were reduced. There was not a definition of what should be maintained as “essential” health care services to address IPV during this public health emergency. In response to this need, HRSA reached out to NASEM to sponsor this consensus study to help guide decision making on needed healthcare services for women experiencing and at risk for IPV in future public health emergencies. 

Gonzalez-Guarda was part of the committee that generated the recommendation for the consensus report and was involved as a co-author contributing to key aspects of the report related to health inequities, the unique needs of racial and ethnic minoritized and immigrant women, and the important role that community-based organizations and coordinated community responses play as partners in health care. 

She said the report helped translate research generated at DUSON that has been led by her and her team into recommended policies and practices that can help improve the lives of women and families affected and at risk for IPV during future public health emergencies. “It is one example of how the research we are leading at DUSON on social determinants of health is leading to policy change that will have a large impact on population health and health equity,” Gonzalez-Guarda said.

Since the report’s release two weeks ago, there has been a lot of press. Gonzalez-Guarda said, “We hope that it will eventually lead to the programs and policies we have recommended.”

Gonzalez-Guarda has been at DUSON since June 2016 and is a Miami native born to immigrant parents from Cuba. She has three sons Sebastian, 14, Marco, 12, and Nicholas, 10.