In 2024, 26 people died as a result of domestic violence in Switzerland, most of them women. This figure is a wake-up call for society as a whole and is part of an equally dramatic statistic which, again in 2024, reported 21,000 cases of domestic violence recorded throughout Switzerland, with 70% of the victims being women.

The phenomenon of domestic violence is being addressed with great seriousness by the political authorities. In Ticino, the canton is implementing an action plan with a comprehensive series of measures, including the CAS in Forensic Nursing, proposed by SUPSI in collaboration with the Institute of Legal Medicine.

The aim is to train nurses who are able, in obvious cases or when faced with suspicious injuries, to produce documentation that meets the needs of the medical examiner and judicial investigations. But that's not all. These professionals develop skills in welcoming, listening to, and referring unreported victims of domestic violence to a support network.

We discuss this with:

Cinzia Campello, senior lecturer and researcher at the SUPSI Center for Applied Psychology and head of the CAS in Forensic Nursing;

Lorenzo Pezzoli, professor of applied psychology, head of the SUPSI Center for Applied Psychology, and head of the CAS in Forensic Nursing.