When Congress passed the Deborah Sampson Act of 2020 — named for a woman who served in the Revolutionary War disguised as a man — the goal was to broaden access to government-provided medical care for female military veterans.
Now, one key provision of that bill has led to a new report concerning intimate partner violence among veterans, with recommendations aimed at Department of Veteran Affairs clinicians and at policymakers. The authors convened a multidisciplinary virtual panel comprising a dozen advocates and experts representing patients, frontline medical staff, researchers and government decisionmakers.
“If we want to learn anything and move forward, then the approach has to be evidence-informed,” said first and corresponding author Susanne Hempel, PhD , a professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of the Southern California Evidence Review Center . “The VA understood this and commissioned us to synthesize the current state of knowledge about intimate partner violence and veterans’ health.”
The team of scientists compiled research summaries for the panel, consisting of accessible reports which combined findings from over 100 studies. Many were systematic reviews that themselves brought together data from up to hundreds of peer-reviewed publications.
Based on the data provided, the panelists recommended broader screening for those at risk of experiencing or using intimate partner violence, as well education and training for healthcare staff to help them recognize and respond to signs that someone may be at risk. The panel also issued conclusions about potential risk factors and interventions for intimate partner violence among veterans.
“Policymakers are bombarded every day with a ton of suggestions and only so many resources to bring to bear solutions,” said senior author Elizabeth Yano, PhD, MSPH, director of the Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation & Policy at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and a UCLA professor-in-residence of medicine and of public health. “They need to know what’s most critical and what has the greatest chances of making a difference, and this report combined the best of what’s known with input from leading experts to help them focus on what’s essential.”
The recommendations in the report, which were published in the journal Women’s Health Issues , have already been delivered to key VA leaders.
More than physical violence
There are no universally accepted definitions that cover every facet of intimate partner violence. However, the panel agreed it’s important that clinicians and the veterans they serve understand that the term encompasses more than physical and sexual assault. They recommended that definitions should include examples of other harmful behaviors such as stalking.
“How to define intimate partner violence has a lot of implications for how it’s recognized and treated,” Hempel said. “The main thing that people may not know is that there are a lot of cruel psychological tactics that are disturbing and very difficult.”
While experiencing and using intimate partner violence is more common among veterans than the population at large, the panel noted difficulty in deriving definitive statistics due to differences in sampling strategies among studies and a lack of data on key subgroups.
The report also enumerated risk factors for intimate partner violence that are unique to veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), higher suicide rates and prolonged separation due to deployment.
Current VA interventions shown sound
Currently, veterans receive treatment for intimate partner violence through the VA’s National IPV Assistance Program. Its guiding principles put people first and keep veterans’ perspectives at the center of its work. The program’s interventions recognize and respond to the various types of trauma that veterans experience while promoting recovery.
The panel agreed unanimously that these principles were vital to the program’s success in serving veterans.
“There was a lot of support for the initiatives that are already happening,” Hempel said. “Our report indicates that the program the VA established a long time ago is still valid and working with exactly the right approach.”
Recommendations to improve VA screening for intimate partner violence
The panel’s recommendations for both clinical practice and policy centered on patient screening coupled with training and education for staff.
The fact that reports of intimate partner violence can surface through any part of the VA health system was a factor at the forefront of panelists’ minds. This led to recommendations for a “no wrong door” policy — ensuring that any clinical touchpoint can lead to help.
“Disclosure often comes out in a completely random care episode that has nothing to do with intimate partner violence,” Hempel said. “We heard lots of examples, such as disclosures at physical therapy sessions or blood draws. You can’t just wait for some one to make a mental health visit and talk about intimate partner violence.”
The panel emphasized the need to train all healthcare staff on screening practices and called on policymakers to help ensure providers have the staffing and tools to do so.
“We can only do more screening for experiencing or using intimate partner violence if there are resources in place that give people concrete ideas about what they should do,” Hempel said.
There’s a grim intersection among veterans — higher rates of firearm ownership and higher risk for suicide. So the panel recommended safety planning alongside targeted screening for intimate partner violence in those reporting suicidality, PTSD, substance abuse or sleep problems.
“The issue can’t be taken lightly,” Hempel said. “A patient might be in a really dangerous situation.”
About the report
Other co-authors are Aneesa Motala of USC; Adriana Rodriguez of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; and Katherine Iverson of Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System.
The report received funding from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs [C03-6C26224P2174], the VA Women’s Health Research Network [SDR 10-012] and VA Health Systems Research [RCS 05-195].
Systematic review
People
Veteran-Related Intimate Partner Violence: Results From a Multidisciplinary and Evidence-Informed Panel Process
25-Jul-2026
The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this work.