Doubt over effectiveness of domestic violence training
14th Oct 2011 Catherine Hanrahan all articles by this author
TRAINING
GPs to identify women experiencing domestic violence dramatically
increases referral to specialist services, a new study shows, but
experts question whether it actually benefits the victims.
In the UK study, 24 general practice teams were given prompts in their medical record software to ask women about abuse, and training sessions were delivered by domestic violence experts who also acted as the advocate for referral.
The research showed that practices trained to identify cases of domestic abuse referred 223 women to advocacy over a 12-month period, compared with only 12 referrals from practices not given the intervention.
Similarly, practices in the intervention group recorded three times more cases of domestic violence than the control group.
“We showed… clinician behaviour with regards to domestic violence – a major public health and healthcare issue that has largely been ignored in clinical practice – can be changed,” the authors said.
Associate Professor Kelsey Hegarty, who leads the University of Melbourne’s abuse and violence research program in the Department of General Practice, said in an editorial published with the study that it showed the intensiveness required to change clinicians’ behaviour.
“However, the clinical significance is unknown and therefore it is difficult to be sure whether this intervention, if replicated, will improve abused women’s health and wellbeing,” the editorial said.
The Lancet 2011; online 13 Oct
In the UK study, 24 general practice teams were given prompts in their medical record software to ask women about abuse, and training sessions were delivered by domestic violence experts who also acted as the advocate for referral.
The research showed that practices trained to identify cases of domestic abuse referred 223 women to advocacy over a 12-month period, compared with only 12 referrals from practices not given the intervention.
Similarly, practices in the intervention group recorded three times more cases of domestic violence than the control group.
“We showed… clinician behaviour with regards to domestic violence – a major public health and healthcare issue that has largely been ignored in clinical practice – can be changed,” the authors said.
Associate Professor Kelsey Hegarty, who leads the University of Melbourne’s abuse and violence research program in the Department of General Practice, said in an editorial published with the study that it showed the intensiveness required to change clinicians’ behaviour.
“However, the clinical significance is unknown and therefore it is difficult to be sure whether this intervention, if replicated, will improve abused women’s health and wellbeing,” the editorial said.
The Lancet 2011; online 13 Oct
14th Oct 2011
4:59pm
It has been traditional to categorise domestic violence management under the notion of assailant and assailee.
After decades of working as a GP I tend to see the phenomenon as a dyadic or co-dependent one: That both parties have difficutlies in negotiating differences in a win-win style. Commonly one utilises their physical powers, the other chronic low grade passive aggression which causes the other to snap using the only skill that they know.
Could it be that we need to redefine the concept of domestic violence.