Writing Practice Prescription

Ellen H. Taliaferro, MD, FACEP serves as the Medical Director of the San Mateo Medical Center Keller Center for Family Violence Intervention in San Mateo, CA.  She speaks and writes on the healthcare impact of violence and abuse.

For healthcare professionals, Dr. Taliaferro co-authored the Physicians Guide to Domestic Violence, The Physician’s Guide to Intimate Partner Violence, and Respond to Intimate Partner Violence – 10 Action Steps You Can Take to Help Your Patients and Your Practice. For survivors of violence and abuse, she has written WellWriting™ for Health After Trauma and Abuse, which teaches survivors of trauma and abuse to use a form of directed, expressive, and autobiographical writing, to improve their health and well-being. She also conducts workshops for providers who work with victims of violence so that they can avoid the occupational stress of compassion fatigue.

In 1998, she founded the Parkland Hospital Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) Center in Dallas, TX, and served as its Medical Director until returning home to California in 2001. She was the co-founder and former Executive Director of Physicians for a Violence-free Society (PVS).

She is a graduate of the Oklahoma University School of Medicine, a former PEW Fellow in Health Policy at the UCSF Institute of Health Policy Studies, a life fellow of the American College of Emergency Medicine, and Board-certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Taliaferro is a founding member and Board  Member of the recently created Academy on Violence and Abuse.