Betrokken vertwijfeling: een intersectionele analyse van partnergeweld in de huisartsenpraktijk

Abstract

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a major societal problem with significant healthcare implications. The consequences of this kind of violence result in victims (and perpetrators) regularly needing healthcare. Various structural barriers can prevent victims from accessing services or result in inadequate responses to their needs. International research shows that general practitioners can play an important role in tackling IPV but that they also are confronted with various difficulties themselves. Drawing on seventeen in-depth interviews with general practitioners in Flanders, we discuss in this article the experiences of GPs who come across IPV in their health care practice. We use an intersectional approach to better understand the difficulties GPs face by looking at the complexity underlying these cases and by exploring GPs’ understanding of vulnerabilities of marginalised groups. A thematic data analysis was applied. Using a number of case studies, we found that GPs are confronted with various structural barriers that complicate the care of patients who are victims of IPV. This gives rise to alternative care strategies, which are based on a sentiment of ‘involved incertitude’.

Responsibility or Responsibilization in Medical Evidencing of Domestic Violence? The Belgian Case Analyzed Through a Care Ethical Lens

“…In the second work package, in-depth interviews with 17 general practitioners about cases of domestic violence were conducted between 2018 and 2020. General practitioners were asked to describe cases they encountered in their practice and to sort statement cards (Vergaert et al, 2021). In the third work package, 15 semi-structured interviews with female victims were conducted in 2019 and 2020.…”

“…It is often argued that the medical paradigm pathologizes individual victims and perpetrators. This paradigm positions responsibilities with the individual and their illness while at the same time masking structural inequalities shaping domestic violence (Wilkerson, 2019). Several authors have framed this as a process of responsibilization, stemming from neoliberal free-market values and individualistic thinking, whereby a discourse dominates that people are free and rational actors.…”