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IN A JUNE 23 interview on Oprah’s podcast, author Rachel Louise Snyder — whose bestselling book No Visible Bruises reshaped how Americans understand domestic violence — argued that the term itself falls short: What we’re really talking about is intimate terrorism. The episode also explored risk factors for homicide, and the uncomfortable truth that the most dangerous place for many women is inside their own home.

Oprah’s podcast reaches tens of millions of people. Many of them will hear Rachel Snyder’s words and recognize someone they love. Some will recognize themselves. We want those people to know help exists, and it is closer than you think.

We also want this moment to catalyze something larger. National conversations are powerful, but change is local. It happens in the decisions judges make in family court on a Tuesday morning. It happens in how an officer is trained to ask the right questions at a doorstep at midnight. It happens in whether a survivor is connected to an advocate immediately, or left to navigate a fragmented system alone.

For too long, we have treated domestic violence homicide as a tragedy we could not have seen coming. We grieve. We hold vigils. We ask what warning signs were missed. And we discover, again and again, that before a woman was killed, she had contact with police, courts, advocates, health care providers — people who never had the chance to connect the dots.

The truth is painful, but it is also hopeful: many domestic violence homicides are not random. They are often preceded by recognizable warning signs — threats to kill, strangulation, stalking, access to firearms, violence that escalates after a victim tries to leave. When communities are trained to recognize those signs and respond together, outcomes can change.

That is why, over the past two decades, 26 communities across Massachusetts have adopted a coordinated approach to identifying and responding to the most dangerous domestic violence cases — a model known as the Domestic Violence High Risk Team.

Before, these systems looked like many across the country: dedicated professionals working hard, but in silos. Commitment was not enough. What was missing was coordination.

It started with one local agency: the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, Newburyport’s domestic violence agency. The center’s advocates were pushed to act after a woman receiving services was killed by her partner — a death that revealed how many different parts of the system had touched her case without ever connecting what they knew.

The agency began to look at research that identified the risk factors that escalate in severity and frequency before intimate partner violence becomes lethal. In 2005, local police, advocates, and prosecutors began meeting regularly to review the community’s most dangerous cases together, through the lens of that research.

The results were stark enough to take notice of. In the 10 years before the team began its work, the greater Newburyport community saw eight domestic violence-related deaths. Since the team started reviewing cases in 2005, it has accepted more than 200 high-risk cases. The number of homicides among them: zero.

The US Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women has since identified the approach as a “successful homicide reduction model.” As other communities began asking to implement it, Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center’s work grew into the Geiger Institute, a national initiative built to train and support domestic violence homicide prevention efforts elsewhere. It’s an origin story Snyder covers in detail in No Visible Bruises, and the thread that connects this small city’s history to the conversation now playing out on Oprah’s platform.

Of the 26 Massachusetts communities that have adopted the model, some trained directly through the Geiger Institute; others adapted and implemented it on their own. What they share is a structure: multidisciplinary teams — law enforcement, advocates, prosecutors, courts, health care providers, and others — who come together to review high-risk cases, share information, and coordinate a response.

It means the people responsible for safety are at the same table, asking: What is the risk? What can we do — together — right now?

Numbers only tell part of the story. Survivors in these communities have described feeling believed sooner, and said their safety planning felt more meaningful because the people around the table truly understood the risk they were facing.

This work saves lives. But it is not easy. It requires every part of the system to acknowledge that no single agency can prevent domestic violence homicide alone. It requires humility, training, and political will. And it requires investment in the tools, protocols, and infrastructure communities need to act early and act together.

The national conversation sparked by No Visible Bruises — and amplified by Oprah’s platform — is a turning point. Not just awareness, but accountability. Not reacting after a homicide, but building communities capable of preventing one.

Massachusetts is part of a growing movement, both in-state and nationally, built on a simple belief: The worst outcomes of domestic violence are not inevitable. They are predictable. They are preventable. And preventing them demands a coordinated response.

For communities ready to act, the tools, training, and partnerships already exist. What’s needed now is the will — and the investment — to bring them to scale.

Lives depend on what we do next.

Suzanne Dubus is the CEO of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, SafeLink, the Massachusetts statewide domestic violence hotline, is available 24/7 at 877-785-2020.