Public Awareness
OPDV Bulletin:
Domestic Violence Screening and HIV Partner Notification
Public Health Law ' 2130 et seq. requires health care providers to ask individuals testing positive for HIV to identify their sexual and/or needle-sharing contacts so that they can be notified of their possible exposure to the virus. The regulations implementing this law took effect on June 1, 2000. People testing positive for HIV will be asked to work with their providers to plan how best to notify partners who may be at risk of infection.
Recognizing that notification of exposure to HIV may sometimes be used as an excuse for violence against the person who has tested positive, the law requires that clients be screened for domestic violence during post-test counseling, before being asked to name partners. Ideally, the subject should be raised during intake or pre-test counseling sessions. This would allow clients at risk of domestic violence to be referred to local service providers for assistance with safety planning before they are faced with learning their diagnosis. Partner notification must be deferred any time there is a risk that the notified person may engage in behavior that could have a severe negative effect on the health and safety of the HIV-infected individual, their children or someone close to them.
While the client's name is never mentioned during the partner notification process, some people who are notified may readily figure out who might have exposed them to the virus. Because of this, even partners who are already known to the provider will not be notified if doing so poses a risk of domestic violence against the client. Clients who do not feel safe naming partners will face no penalties for refusing to do so.
OPDV has collaborated with the AIDS Institute (AI) to develop a domestic violence screening procedure, along with training materials to teach HIV test counselors and providers to use it, that are included in the AI's curriculum on HIV Reporting and Partner Notification. OPDV staff also worked with the AI's Clinical Education training staff to increase their understanding of domestic violence, and help them effectively present this material to providers who will be responsible for making decisions about deferral of partner notification. In addition, OPDV staff are developing a training curriculum on domestic violence affecting lesbian/gay/transgendered/bisexual people, that will be offered statewide by the AI's trainers. OPDV will remain involved in ongoing training initiatives to prepare health care providers and HIV test counselors to screen carefully and sensitively for domestic violence in the context of partner notification.
