Violence prevention and intervention is a cross-cutting focus in the Hesse Department of Labour, Family and Health, a state-level ministry in Germany, with special emphasis on violence in the family, trafficking in human beings, youth aggression and crime. The Department is responsible for policy development for family, youth, women and seniors, healthy communities, protective services for populations with special needs, public health and occupational health, support of the health professions, social security, labour promotion schemes and social entrepreneurship.
A leader in violence prevention, the Hesse Department of Labour, Family and Health finances protective services and shelters in Hesse and contributes to legislative reforms. In 2009 the Department secured funding for a Violence Prevention in Health Programme to facilitate knowledgeable health actor responses to violence. Currently, a pilot project in dentistry is being run statewide and the nation’s first public health walk-in assessment centre for violence victims set up in Fulda (Schutzambulanz Fulda)
The Department has been instrumental in creating formalized and sustainable multi-institutional cooperation in Hesse and internationally. The Department’s task forces involve experts from public agencies, NGOs and universities. These advise on cabinet-level action plans, policy documents as well as pragmatic tools, such as health sector protocols for victims of intimate partner violence, sexualized violence and child abuse and neglect. Hesse violence prevention is also informed by research supported by competitive state, national and European grant funding.