Social Work in the Emergency Department—Implementation of a Domestic and Family Violence Screening Program

Power, Charmaine; Bahnisch, Laura; McCarthy, Debbie

doi:10.1080/0312407x.2011.606909

Cited by 23 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…There are relatively few studies in Australasian hospital EDs focusing on the experience of health professionals caring for women with IPV. Some research has evaluated education and institutional protocols to assist clinicians to identify and respond to IPV and has demonstrated improved clinician knowledge, assessment, and referral practices up to 6 months postimplementation. Another study surveyed ED staff about screening practices, finding that medical officers and nurses lack knowledge and capacity to identify and respond to IPV.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emergency Department Response to Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Insights From Interviews With Clinicians in Australia

Dawson

Rossiter

Doab

et al. 2019

Academic Emergency Medicine

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Background and Objectives: Emergency departments (EDs) are essential providers of compassionate, immediate treatment and referral for women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV, largely perpetrated by men against women, exerts a substantial burden on the health systems and economies of all nations. There is little known about how staff in Australian EDs respond to the challenges such violence generates. We therefore examined the clinical team response to women experiencing IPV in two large Australian metropolitan hospital EDs.Methods: We undertook qualitative semistructured interviews and focus group discussions with 35 social workers, nurses, and doctors. Transcripts were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We analyzed the data thematically. We first undertook line-by-line coding and organized content into descriptive categories. Latent and manifest patterns were identified across the data and mapped to key themes in negotiation with all authors.Results: Respondents emphasized challenges identifying IPV resulting from professional uncertainty or discomfort and women's fear of the ramifications of disclosure. Emergency clinicians routinely referred women to social workers after medical treatment and described effective collaboration across professions. Social workers outlined difficulties coordinating care with health and community agencies. Staff highlighted challenges maintaining nonjudgmental attitudes and managing their own feelings-especially clinicians who had personally experienced violence.Conclusions: Emergency departments can provide caring environments for women experiencing IPV. Effective interprofessional teamwork across nursing, medical, and social work professionals may mitigate the need for formal screening tools. Supportive workforce environments can improve staff understanding, reduce stigma, enhance appropriate treatment, and counsel health professionals experiencing violence. However, staff training and advocacy and referral relationships with local programs require strengthening. A connected multisystemslevel response is required to coordinate and resource services for all affected by violence. I ntimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health issue in high income countries with an overall 12-month period prevalence of 4%. 1 IPV is largely perpetrated by men against women and is therefore a key determinant of women's and children's health that exerts a substantial burden on the health systems and

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Emergency Department Response to Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Insights From Interviews With Clinicians in Australia

Dawson

Rossiter

Doab

et al. 2019

Academic Emergency Medicine

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“…Role legitimacy and perceived self‐efficacy have been identified as vital to a positive therapeutic attitude towards harmful drinking patients . Previous research has also found experience, knowledge and confidence were the keys to clinicians regularly screening for interpersonal violence . Effective training and use of best evidence has long been established as improving patient outcomes , while best practice activities such as alcohol screening and brief intervention can reduce rates of harmful alcohol consumption and identify patients most at risk .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived changes and perceived transferability for treating intoxicated women victims of violence among emergency clinicians after an alcohol and other drugs training program

Marshall

Schultz

Crespigny

2019

Drug and Alcohol Review

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Introduction and Aims. Given the significant overlap between alcohol intoxication and violence against women, it is imperative that emergency clinicians are equipped to care for women presenting with both issues. This research aimed to explore emergency clinicians' perceived changes and ability to apply training, particularly to intoxicated women victims of violence. Design and Methods. Using a pre-post questionnaire, 74 participants of the Emergency Mental Health Alcohol and Drug program were surveyed about their education/training, awareness and use of guidelines and tools, perceived changes in knowledge, skills and confidence and ability to apply the training. Results. Low levels of previous education/training, awareness and use of best practice tools were reported. Although high rates of change in knowledge and confidence were reported after the program, a minority (38%) felt able to apply this to intoxicated women victims of violence. Working in an emergency department (P = 0.03) and having higher qualifications (P < 0.01) were the only significant factors affecting their ability to apply the training. Discussion and Conclusions. The lower rates of perceived ability to apply to intoxicated women victims of violence suggest a deficit in ability to translate knowledge into practice. Higher qualifications affected respondents' ability to apply the training to intoxicated women victims of violence, suggesting that general skills learned regarding translating knowledge into practice rather than specific content may have more impact. This research indicates that clinicians' knowledge and confidence can be positively impacted by targeted education/training, but any future education/training must include knowledge translation skills. [Marshall A, Schultz T, de Crespigny C. Perceived changes and perceived transferability for treating intoxicated women victims of violence among emergency clinicians after an alcohol and other drugs training program. Drug Alcohol Rev 2019;38: [530][531][532][533][534][535][536]

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research to date indicates that women are not being routinely screened for DV by all HCPs [ 27 , 28 ]. The reluctance of HCPs to screen for DV is purported to be due to inadequate knowledge and training with DV screening tools and the belief that resources to support identified victims are inadequate [ 27 , 28 ]. Furthermore, HCPs’ lack of DV screening has been identified as due to fear of offending patients, a lack of time and forgetting to routinely screen, a lack of patient privacy, workload issues, reluctance to see DV as a health issue, and HCPs’ personal discomfort with DV [ 27 – 29 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reluctance of HCPs to screen for DV is purported to be due to inadequate knowledge and training with DV screening tools and the belief that resources to support identified victims are inadequate [ 27 , 28 ]. Furthermore, HCPs’ lack of DV screening has been identified as due to fear of offending patients, a lack of time and forgetting to routinely screen, a lack of patient privacy, workload issues, reluctance to see DV as a health issue, and HCPs’ personal discomfort with DV [ 27 – 29 ]. GPs have also reported reluctance in initiating DV screening due to a lack of formal training and appropriate referral pathways in the event of a positive screen [ 28 , 29 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opportunistic domestic violence screening for pregnant and post-partum women by community based health care providers

O’Reilly

Peters

2018

BMC Women's Health

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BackgroundDomestic violence against women is a global endemic that can commence or escalate during pregnancy and continue postpartum. Pregnant and postpartum women generally access health care providers more at this time than at any other time in their lives. Despite this, little is known about primary health care providers’ screening practices for domestic violence. The purpose of this paper is to present survey findings that identified domestic violence screening practices of community based health care providers in pregnant and postpartum women.MethodsThis paper reports on the survey results of a larger sequential mixed methods study that involved a survey and semi-structured interviews, and used a pragmatic approach to the data collection and analysis. The survey sought information via both fixed choice and open responses. Quantitative data from the surveys were entered into the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS™ Version 22) and analysed using descriptive statistics. Open responses were collated and then integrated and presented with the quantitative data.ResultsResults revealed that some health care providers did not screen for domestic violence. Factors contributing to this lack of screening included: a lack of recognition that this was part of their role; and a lack of domestic violence screening policies and/or reminder systems. Further barriers to domestic violence screening were identified as a lack of time, resources and confidence in undertaking the screening and referral of women when domestic violence was detected.ConclusionsThe findings reported in this paper confirm that further insights into the domestic violence screening practices of community based health care providers is required. Findings also have the potential to inform interventions that can be implemented to increase domestic violence screening and promote appropriate referral practices.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12905-018-0620-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Social Work in the Emergency Department—Implementation of a Domestic and Family Violence Screening Program

Cited by 23 publications

References 23 publications

The Emergency Department Response to Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Insights From Interviews With Clinicians in Australia

The Emergency Department Response to Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Insights From Interviews With Clinicians in Australia

Perceived changes and perceived transferability for treating intoxicated women victims of violence among emergency clinicians after an alcohol and other drugs training program

Opportunistic domestic violence screening for pregnant and post-partum women by community based health care providers

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