# Evaluating the Implementation and Impact of the Updated Relationship Health and Safety Screening National Rollout

> **NIH VA I50** · VA CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex public health crisis with far-reaching consequences for Veterans
and their families. The healthcare system plays an integral role in the detection and treatment of IPV through
implementation of IPV screening and provision of resources in response to IPV disclosures. The National IPV
Assistance Program (IPVAP) is in the process of expanding the screening directive from women and at-risk
Veterans to a national rollout and updated directive indicating that Veterans of all genders are to be screened
annually for IPV using the Relationship Health and Safety (RHS 3.0) screener. Evaluating the implementation
and impact of this updated national screening rollout is a critical priority for IPVAP. Prior HSR&D funded
research has focused on identifying barriers and facilitators of implementing IPV screening among women of
reproductive age in primary care settings. However, little is known about the implementation or clinical impact
of screening patients of all genders and ages for IPV. The proposed study builds on past findings by evaluating
the national rollout expanding IPV screening to all Veterans. IPVAP’s updated directive requires foundational
screening implementation and outcome data among non-women Veterans and the development of data
tracking and systems. Additionally, a critical missing piece needed to inform scale-up of IPV screening to all
Veterans is data on the impact of IPV screening through identification of patient outcomes following IPV
disclosures. A robust partnered evaluation of the expanded IPV screening national rollout will extend prior work
and assist IPVAP in determining implementation and clinical impact outcomes. We plan to simultaneously
evaluate the rollout of IPVAP’s expanded national IPV screening directive now targeting all patients while also
examining the impact of this new initiative to provide innovative and critically needed data on the impact of
screening non-women patients to the Program Office. As a result, we will develop the tools and systems
essential for IPVAP to monitor screening implementation across clinical settings and identify Veteran-focused
outcomes related to IPV screening and positive disclosures, and best practices for scale-up and maintenance
of IPV screening among all Veterans. The specific aims of this PEI are to (1) Evaluate implementation of the
expanded RHS 3.0 screening and response national by (a) assessing IPV screening implementation outcomes
across RE-AIM domains (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance); (b) examining
potential differences in outcomes by patient characteristics (e.g., gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, marital status); and (c) identifying clinical settings and provider types most and least likely to
screen for IPV and yield positive IPV disclosures during screening. (2) Identify impact of IPV screening on
patients as well as potential gender differences in impact by (a) examining service uti...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10864074
- **Project number:** 1I50HX003896-01
- **Recipient organization:** VA CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Galina Alexandra Portnoy
- **Activity code:** I50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-10-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10864074

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10864074, Evaluating the Implementation and Impact of the Updated Relationship Health and Safety Screening National Rollout (1I50HX003896-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10864074. Licensed CC0.

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