Hesse Department of Social Welfare
Hessisches Sozialministerium - Hesse Department of Social Welfare
Referatsleitung Prävention und Schutz vor Gewalt
Section Head Violence Prevention and Intervention
Dostojewskistrasse 4
D - 65187 Wiesbaden
Germany
New edition of Hesse documenation tools improving health provider responses to intimate partner violence can be viewed at:
Violence prevention and intervention is a cross-cutting focus in the Hesse Department of Social Welfare, a state-level ministry in Germany, with special emphasis placed on violence in the family, trafficking of human beings, youth aggression and crime. The Department’s responsibilities cover a broad spectrum, from family relations and policy development for youth, women and seniors, healthy communities, protective services for populations with special needs, integration of foreign population groups, public health and occupational health, support of the health professions, social security, labour promotion schemes and social entrepreneurship.
The Hesse Department of Social Welfare plays a leadership role in violence prevention. In addition to securing financial support of protective services and shelters in Hesse and contributing to legislative reforms, the Department has been instrumental in creating formalized and sustainable multi-institutional cooperation both within and outside the state’s borders. The Department has initiated a number of task forces in which experts from state and community agencies and NGOs have developed cabinet-level action plans, policy documents, practical recommendations as well as specific tools, such as a health response protocol for victims of intimate partner violence. The Hesse Department of Social Welfare facilitates capacity building through international exchange as founding member of the European Violence Prevention in Health Network and the Violence Prevention Alliance and by actively collaborating with additional networks.
VPA focal person
Nancy Gage-Lindner
Tel: +49 (0) 611 817 2473
Fax: +49 (0) 611 890 84183
Email: Nancy.Gage-Lindner@hsm.hessen.de
Ms Gage-Lindner was born in New York City/USA and educated in the United States, France and Germany. She holds an AB degree in comparative literature from Smith College/USA and a law degree from the University of Hamburg/Germany.
Initially an attorney-at-law, Ms Gage-Lindner has been in government policy positions since the early 90s. As section head for violence prevention and protection in the Hesse Department of Social Welfare, her responsibilities entail law writing, policy and programme development and research support at state and national levels in Germany and within the European Union. Until early 2006 she was managing chairperson of the Hesse task force on violence in the home, a multi-sectoral advisory board mandated to draft the Hesse action plan to combat violence in the home which the Hesse Cabinet approved in November 2004.
The delivery of health care to violence victims is a primary focus of her work. She is founding member of transnational networks involving the health sector whose tasks include the analysis of health services, violence incidence and prevalence research, promotion of community level and multi-national cooperation between health actors and victim advocacy, tool development and policy reform. Professional association memberships include the German Women’s Lawyer Association committee on violence against women and children which contributes to law drafting and policy analysis.