Health Providers’ Narratives on Intimate Partner Violence Against Roma Women in Spain

Abstract

This qualitative study identifies health professionals' dominant, adaptive, and liberating narratives regarding inter-ethnic relations when talking about intimate partner violence (IPV) and the health system responses to the way it affects Roma women. Dominant narratives are oppressive internalized stories that shape social perceptions of members of both dominant and minority groups, adaptive narratives refer to those that acknowledge asymmetry and inequality, and liberating narratives directly challenge oppression with resistant views of stereotypes and negative interpretations. A total of 25 in-depth interviews were carried out with healthcare professionals in Spain in 2015. A discourse analysis of the interview transcriptions was conducted, showing the way in which different narratives about Roma people and IPV are combined among health providers. Dominant narratives were more salient: they were used by health providers to reflect prejudicial social perceptions in Spain that depict the Roma as a marginalized and traditional group, to construct Roma women in negative and prejudicial terms as patients, and to explain the existence of the cultural normalization of IPV among Roma women. Adaptive and liberating narratives showed a prevailing ideology in terms of the tendency to socially discriminate against Roma people. Using liberating narratives to train and raise awareness among health professionals about IPV among Roma women could facilitate a positive change in their treatment of Roma women who could be affected by IPV, helping to ameliorate the maintenance of existing prejudices.

Racism in healthcare: a scoping review

“…Qualitative articles that examine beliefs and perceptions of healthcare staff in regards to racialized minorities are all articles that have not primarily set out to examine racism. These articles mainly explore how healthcare staff perceive interactions with Roma people in Slovakia [ 173 ], Spain [ 174 ], Romania [ 175 ] and in multi-European contexts [ 176 ]. Moreover, these studies look at American Indians in the USA [ 106 ], African American women in the USA [ 177 ], Micronesian women in Hawai ‘i in the USA [ 178 ], Indigenous people in Australia [ 179 ], Asians in the UK [ 180 , 181 ] as well as racialized minorities in general in Belgium [ 182 ], in Ireland [ 183 ] and in France [ 14 ].…”

Challenges to Detecting and Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Among Roma Women in Spain: Perspectives of Primary Care Providers

“…The interviews included in this study belong to a larger qualitative study on the response of PCP to IPV that affects Roma women in Spain (Vives-Cases, Espinar-Ruiz, et al, 2017, Vives-Cases, Goicolea, et al, 2017; Briones-Vozmediano, La Parra-Casado, & Vives-Cases, 2018). The larger project aimed to (a) analyze primary health services’ and professionals’ readiness to manage violence against Romani women in Spain and (b) propose improving strategies, taking into account the health professionals’ and Romani women activists’ perspectives.…”

A Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Roma Health Justice in a Deprived District in Spain

“…Dealing with a large number of extended family members makes communication between patient and providers challenging. This is commonly seen as unacceptable behavior by healthcare providers [24,25]. Daily interactions transform Roma protective factors into opportunities for discrimination in such a way that Roma are hostage to the antigypysist narratives, practices, and laws that are used against them [26].…”