A systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis of the roles of home-visiting nurses working with women experiencing family violence

Healthcare and legal systems responses to coercive control: an embodied performance of one woman's experience

This paper uses a drama-based method to illustrate the responses of healthcare and legal systems to women experiencing coercive control. This approach involved writing a play using the first-person narrative voice of a victim-survivor. We presented the play at the Stop Domestic Violence Conference (Gold Coast, Australia) in 2021. The central character, 'Kate', provided an embodied performance that enabled the conference participants to see, feel and understand experiences of coercive control from a personal perspective. We followed the trajectory of coercive control from the beginning of an intimate relationship to the time of separation. We showed how the process of coercive control escalates from love bombing, reproductive coercion, isolation, and technology-facilitated abuse until a point of police intervention. As Kate told her story, the conference audience witnessed the barriers and challenges faced by survivors of coercive control, and the emotional, financial, and psychological impacts that are intensified in geographically remote environments. They watched Kate navigate health and other systems meant to help women experiencing domestic and family violence, but that ultimately failed to deliver. Finally, the drama-based approach allowed us to present a feminist embodiment of coercive control and an innovative method for communicating inter-disciplinary research findings on domestic abuse.

Domestic violence against women has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic: A perspective paper about the need for change to current and future practice

The COVID-19 outbreak led to widespread disruption and stress to people's lives. Concern about the escalation of domestic violence (DV) rates and related mental health issues soon emerged following the implementation of strategies aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. This perspective paper presents an overview of the issues, argues for greater recognition of the link between DV against women and serious emotional distress, and the need for greater awareness and knowledge about DV among mental health professionals. While we acknowledge that men also experience DV, their rates are much lower than for women and in this paper our focus is on women.

Interventions for intimate partner violence during the perinatal period: a scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION

Globally, the prevalence and incidence of perinatal intimate partner violence (IPV) are well documented and substantiated; however, there is an urgent need to identify interventions to prevent recurrence or revictimisation, and decrease the harms of perinatal IPV. This scoping review is designed to broadly capture all potential interventions for the secondary prevention of IPV, review them in detail, and assess what can reduce revictimisation and foster improvements in both maternal and neonatal outcomes.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

With the structure of the Joanna Briggs Institute and Arksey and O'Malley methodology for scoping reviews, the search will be conducted in: MEDLINE(R) ALL (OvidSP), Embase (OvidSP), CINAHL (EBSCOHost), APA PsycInfo (OvidSP), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (OvidSP), Web of Science, and Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ProQuest). A manual search of the reference lists of the retrieved articles will be conducted to capture all relevant studies for potential inclusion. A year limit of January 2000-June 2022 will be applied to retrieve most current peer-reviewed articles. No search filters or language limits will be used, but only publications in English and French will be eligible for inclusion. Interventions include but are not limited to: psychotherapy, educational sessions, home visitation, etc. Outcomes include but are not limited to: (1) harms of IPV among survivors (eg, revictimisation) and (2) adverse perinatal outcomes (eg, preterm birth). Interventions will be excluded if they target the perpetrator or child(ren) alone. Titles and abstracts of included studies will be screened in duplicate. Full-text documents will be extracted and reviewed by two independent reviewers. Conflicts between reviewers will be resolved by a third independent reviewer. Findings will be presented with descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethics approval is not required for this scoping review. The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication and conference presentations.

STUDY REGISTRATION

Open Science Framework (OSF) registry (https://osf.io/e294r) in Centre for Open Science (OSF) on 27 May 2022.

Primary healthcare nurses' experiences of addressing intimate partner violence in supportive legal and health system contexts

AIM

To explore the experiences of primary healthcare (PHC) nurses caring for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in a context of institutional support for the management of this health issue.

DESIGN

Secondary qualitative analysis.

METHODS

A purposeful sample (n = 19) of registered nurses, working in a PHC setting, with experience providing care to women who had disclosed intimate partner violence completed an in-depth interview. Thematic analysis was used to code, categorize and synthesize the data.

RESULTS

Four themes were developed from the analysis of the interview transcripts. The first two themes address the characteristics of the type of violence most frequently encountered by participants, and how these characteristics shape the needs of women and the care nurses provide them. The third theme encompasses uncertainties and strategies developed to deal with the aggressor during the consultations as the woman's companion or as the patient himself. Finally, the fourth theme reflects the positive and negative consequences of caring for women exposed to intimate partner violence.

CONCLUSION

When there is a supportive legal framework and health system to address IPV, nurses are able to implement evidence-based best practices in caring for women experiencing intimate partner violence. The predominant type of violence experienced by women at the time they enter the healthcare system shapes their needs and the service/unit they reach. These varying needs should be considered in the development of training programmes for nurses and should be adapted for different healthcare services. Caring for women experiencing intimate partner violence implies an emotional burden even in an institutional supportive context. Therefore, actions to prevent nurses' burnout should be considered and implemented.

IMPACT

Lack of institutional support usually hinders the potential role nurses can play in the care provided to women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Findings from this study demonstrated that primary healthcare nurses are able to implement evidence-based best practices in the care for women experiencing intimate partner violence when there is a supportive legal framework and the health system context is openly favourable to addressing intimate partner violence. Findings from this study could inform the design and implementation of programmes and/or policies to improve nurses' responses to intimate partner violence in primary healthcare services.