December 16, 2005

Remembering domestic violence victims

This year, 16 people died in Massachusetts as a direct result of violence by an intimate partner. On Dec. 9, the MGH community came together to celebrate the lives of victims of domestic violence through music, readings and reflection in a moving service held in the hospital chapel, which was filled to capacity. Speakers included Alasdair Conn, MD, chief of Emergency Services, who led a litany of remembrance — lighting a candle to honor the victims and acknowledging all of the survivors whose lives have been torn apart because of domestic violence.

The desire for peace in both the home and the world was a theme that ran through the service. Several of the speakers made remarks about the importance of standing up against domestic violence.

"I have been most heartened this year by the work at the MGH with the Men Against Abuse group," says Bonnie Michelman, director of MGH Police and Security. "These men have taken a step forward to care about something they perhaps cannot understand or relate to. It can no longer be only the people affected who commit to help on this issue. It has to be the masses — those who have not let themselves be complacent, those who don't need to be reminded but who know in their souls that they cannot allow these atrocities to occur."

This annual service is a collaborative effort of the MGH Chaplaincy Department, the MGH Domestic Violence Working Group, The HAVEN Program, the Partners Employee Assistance Program and MGH Police and Security.