May is Women’s Health Month, a time to recognize the many factors that shape women’s wellbeing, safety, and ability to thrive. While conversations about women’s health often focus on physical health or reproductive care, one of the most significant threats to women’s health remains too often overlooked: domestic violence.
Domestic violence is not only a criminal justice issue or a private family matter. It is fundamentally a women’s health issue and, more broadly, a major public health issue affecting individuals, families, and entire communities.
At The Second Step, we see every day how violence impacts physical health, emotional wellbeing, financial stability, parenting, housing security, and long-term quality of life. We also see the extraordinary resilience of survivors when they are supported with safety, advocacy, and compassionate care.
Domestic Violence Directly Impacts Women’s Health
Domestic violence can affect nearly every aspect of a woman’s physical and mental health.
Survivors may experience:
- Chronic stress and anxiety
- Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Sleep disorders
- Substance use challenges
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Chronic pain
- Headaches and neurological symptoms
- Reproductive health complications
- Pregnancy-related health risks
- Injuries ranging from bruises to traumatic brain injury
The long-term effects of abuse can persist long after physical violence ends. Living in a constant state of fear and hypervigilance changes how the body and brain function. Trauma affects the nervous system, immune system, and overall health outcomes.
Domestic Violence Creates Barriers to Healthcare
Abuse often limits a survivor’s ability to access healthcare safely and consistently.
- Control finances or insurance access
- Prevent medical appointments
- Monitor communication and transportation
- Interfere with medications or treatment
- Isolate survivors from support systems
As a result, many survivors delay care, miss preventive screenings, or seek medical attention only during crisis situations.
Domestic violence also intersects with broader inequities in healthcare access. Survivors in rural communities, immigrant communities, communities of color, LGBTQ+ communities, and individuals with disabilities often face additional barriers to culturally responsive and accessible care.
Domestic Violence Is a Public Health Issue
Domestic violence does not occur in isolation. Its effects ripple outward across families, workplaces, schools, healthcare systems, and communities.
Children exposed to domestic violence may experience:
- Anxiety and trauma symptoms
- Developmental impacts
- Difficulty concentrating in school
- Long-term emotional and health consequences
Communities experience increased strain on:
- Emergency healthcare systems
- Mental health systems
- Housing and shelter systems
- Law enforcement and courts
- Schools and social services
The economic costs are also significant, including lost productivity, healthcare expenses, housing instability, and intergenerational impacts of trauma.
Prevention Is Health Work
Preventing domestic violence means investing in:
- Healthy relationship education
- Economic stability
- Safe housing
- Mental health support
- Community connection
- Trauma-informed care
- Early intervention
- Culturally responsive services
It also requires expanding our understanding of prevention itself.
At The Second Step, we increasingly recognize the importance of what we call the “Hidden Frontlines” — the everyday spaces and people who are often the first to see signs that someone may be struggling or unsafe. Teachers, coaches, healthcare workers, neighbors, faith leaders, hair stylists, landlords, employers, friends, and family members are often on the frontlines of domestic violence long before a survivor reaches a formal service provider.
This means prevention and intervention cannot belong only to domestic violence agencies or law enforcement. It is a shared community responsibility.
We all need the courage, confidence, awareness, and tools to recognize warning signs, respond safely and compassionately, and connect people to support. Creating safer communities requires building a culture where people know how to intervene, how to listen without judgment, and how to support survivors with empathy and accountability.
Public health approaches remind us that violence prevention is not only about responding after harm occurs. It is about creating communities where connection, dignity, safety, and belonging are strengthened — and where people are prepared to care for one another before crises escalate.
Safety is foundational to health. A person cannot fully heal, parent, work, learn, or thrive while living in fear.
Supporting Survivors Supports Community Health
At The Second Step, we work to help victims and survivors of domestic violence heal and thrive in safe, supportive communities. Our services include legal advocacy, crisis intervention, emotional support, safety planning, psychoeducation, and community outreach.
We know that when survivors are supported:
- Families become more stable
- Children experience safer environments
- Communities become healthier and more connected
- Cycles of violence can be interrupted
Domestic violence is not only a personal crisis. It is a community responsibility.
During Women’s Health Month, Let’s Expand the Conversation
Women’s health includes safety. It includes dignity. It includes freedom from violence and coercion.
Recognizing domestic violence as both a women’s health issue and a public health issue helps shift the conversation from silence and stigma toward prevention, support, and collective responsibility.
This Women’s Health Month, we honor the strength and resilience of survivors and recommit ourselves to building communities where all individuals can live safely, heal fully, and thrive.