“I’ll explain how to recognize the signs and help the victims”

Bologna, 20 April 2024 – We’re talking about gender violence today at Cosmofarma 2024scheduled until April 21st at the Bologna Fair. Why violence against women”it is also a question of healthas well as a huge issue of social relevance that concerns everyone.”

It starts from this premise Simonetta Molinaro, pharmacist and criminologist forensic who invented the project ‘The pharmacist informed about the facts’ 10 years ago. Today creator of the event hosted in the Meeting in Farma room of pavilion 29 e organized together with Angela Margiotta, president of the Together Pharmacists Association.

Dr. Molinaro, what role do pharmacists have in combating violence against women? “We certainly have a privileged observatory because we are in the area. The rural pharmacy but also the urban one are in fact a small microcosm. People establish a relationship of trust with us.”

What do women ask the pharmacist? “They are looking for help, advice. It also happens that you realize that there is something that isn’t working.”

What are the warning signs?

“I always repeat to my colleagues that training is important. With the project ‘The pharmacist informed about the facts’ we want to teach people to understand what are the signs from which you can realize that that person is a victim of mistreatment in the family, of domestic violence. We also need to learn to use the right words, to know how to engage and welcome these people.”

Simonetta Molinaro, pharmacist and criminologist

What can a pharmacist do?

“For example, giving information. A telephone number, perhaps that of the nearest anti-violence centre. No one should think of becoming a private investigator, policeman or psychologist. That’s not our part, rather we have to make the person in difficulty understand that we understand. That if he wants to turn to us, we will be there. Often it is enough to feel recognized, it is enough to understand that you have been seen. This can give you the courage that you didn’t have until that moment, because you felt alone.”

What signal alerted you?

“There were many episodes, in one case a bleeding woman arrived with her husband chasing her, so I had to physically hide her in the pharmacy. That was a sensational case.”

Isn’t this always the case?

“No, sometimes situations are more ‘nuanced’. Many times women they don’t have enough money to buy things and they give up. Or I’m anxious. They repeat phrases like: “I have to go, my husband is waiting for me”; “I have to go shopping because my husband has to eat”. There is always a reference to ‘he’. These are very clear signs. Yesterday a lady arrived who couldn’t explain what was wrong with her because her husband wouldn’t let him talk, she constantly interrupted her. Next time, if she comes alone, we will have to try in some way to make her understand that if she needs us we are there.” Is gender violence also a health problem?

“Absolutely yes. With what spirit and with what strength can a woman go to work the next day? The consequences of violence are many. This is not a dirty cloth that is washed in the family, this is a social problem for everyone. The time has come to change our attitude and language. Precisely to achieve a cultural change, perhaps the only strategy that can really save us.”

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