A scoping review of intimate partner violence assistance programmes within health care settings

Abstract

Background: The lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) for women presenting to health care settings is estimated to be 38–59%. With the goal of providing help to victims of abuse, numerous IPV assistance programmes have been developed and evaluated across multiple health care settings. Objective: Our scoping review provides an overview of this literature to identify key areas for potential evidence-based recommendations and to focus research priorities. Methods: We conducted a search of MEDLINE, Embase, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and psycINFO. We used broad eligibility criteria to identify studies that evaluated the effectiveness of IPV assistance programmes delivered within health care settings. We completed all screening and data extraction independently and in duplicate. We used descriptive statistics to summarize all data. Results: Forty-three studies met all eligibility criteria and were included in our scoping review. Nine categories of assistance programmes were identified: counselling/advocacy, safety assessment/planning, referral, providing IPV resources, home visitation, case management, videos, provider cueing, and system changes. Characteristics of programmes amongst studies frequently reporting positive results included those in which one type of active assistance was used (77.8% of studies reported positive results), a counsellor, community worker, or case manager provided the intervention (83.3% of studies reported positive results), and programmes that were delivered over more than five sessions (100.0% of studies reported positive results). Conclusions: IPV assistance programmes are heterogeneous with regards to the types of assistance they include and how they are delivered and evaluated. This heterogeneity creates challenges in identifying which IPV assistance programmes, and which aspects of these programmes, are effective. However, it appears that many different types of IPV assistance programmes can have positive impacts on women.

Training medical students: victim’s perceptions of selectively screening women for intimate partner violence in health care settings

“…However, the extent to which these programmes can prevent future episodes of abuse remain unknown. The substantial variations reported across studies regarding intervention characteristics, study methodologies, and outcome measures also limited researchers’ ability to make conclusive recommendations on the optimal use of screening interventions [11].…”

Prospective evaluation of intimate partner violence in fracture clinics (PRAISE-2): protocol for a multicentre pilot prospective cohort study

“…Table 1 lists the assessments at each study time point. We chose a 12-month follow-up period because this is the most common follow-up length in other IPV studies [ 34 ].

Fig.

…”

Violence against women in heterosexual couples: A review of psychological and medico-legal considerations

“…Female victims of physical abuse are more likely to be recognised and thus more likely to receive help, since they often have to use emergency or hospital services due to physical injuries. 6,7,100–103 Alternately, victims of psychological maltreatment are less likely to be recognised as victims and helped, since they mainly interact with private professionals, such as doctors or psychotherapists, for problems such as anxiety, depression, somatisation, gastric disorders, headaches, menstrual irregularities, pressure disorders, myalgias, osteo-articular pains, hypoacusis, olfactory disorders, alopecia and autoimmune disorders. Therefore, health-care practitioners may not always be able to identify signs of psychological abuse.…”

“…Recognising the signs of IPVAW is a priority, even in cases where the patient does not show apparent signs of violence or the signs of physical or sexual violence are minimal. 22,100–103 According to the directives of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, 105 a deeper understanding of indicators of psychological abuse may facilitate early detection of IPV cases that require specialised support and victim protection.…”