Better domestic violence awareness training for health professionals could assist them to address the problem, says a University of Queensland researcher who is set to launch a book based on research evidence on the subject.
Dr Gwenneth Roberts, a UQ epidemiologist, says students training for the health and medical professions have traditionally learned little – if anything – about dealing with victims, perpetrators and children in families where there is domestic violence.
Dr Roberts teaches UQ medical students about domestic violence - also known as intimate partner abuse - as part of problem-based learning. Her teaching includes introducing medical students to a domestic violence survivor, who tells of the experience.
“It is only in the last 10 years that any training has come in, and in most medical schools it is generally very minimal and often voluntary,” she said.
“There is research evidence that most women who are being abused by their partners do not tell their health professionals.
“This is not to blame the health professionals, because there are a lot of reasons why the women don’t discuss it and the practitioners don’t ask. These issues are discussed in this book.”
Dr Roberts is a co-editor of Intimate Partner Abuse and Health Professionals, which will have its Australian launch in Brisbane on March 24. The launch is co-sponsored by the Domestic Violence Resource Centre, Brisbane, and the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Queensland Chapter.
One of the recurrent themes in the book is that health practitioners need to be aware that while some of the problems faced by survivors of intimate partner abuse can be addressed through medical or mental health interventions, others are best addressed through advocacy and social change. Hence the importance of the collaboration of health professionals with community agencies who address the problems of domestic violence.
Dr Roberts sees greater involvement of health and medical professionals as the “next wave” in the development of protection and prevention against domestic violence.
“The book is designed to better inform health professionals about intimate partner abuse, so they can sensitively assist victims, perpetrators and children who they meet in the course of their practice.”
The book includes a foreword by UQ Emeritus Professor Beverley Raphael, and chapters on: medico-legal issues such as mandatory health practitioner reporting of domestic violence; working with survivors from diverse cultures, ethnicities and sexualities; and screening for domestic violence.
Dr Roberts said health professionals hold a range of views about suggestions that they should screen for domestic violence. This screening might be via routine questioning, in much the same way as they ask patients about smoking and drinking habits.
Studies cited in the book show that rates of inquiry about intimate partner abuse vary between 13 percent and 20 percent, and that doctors and nurses often fail to document domestic violence in medical records.
Reports also show many practitioners fear they may offend a patient by asking about domestic violence, and feel helpless to intervene if a patient does open up to them.
Dr Roberts’ co-editors are Associate Professor Kelsey Hegarty of the University of Melbourne and Professor Gene Feder of Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry in London.
The book will be launched on Friday, March 24, 2006 at 5pm at the Hotel Diana, Annerley Road Woolloongabba, Queensland. Co-editor Dr Hegarty will be keynote speaker at a seminar conducted at 3pm at the same venue that day.
For more details contact the Domestic Violence Resource Centre on 07 3217 2544.
Media: To arrange an interview with Dr Roberts call 0417 660 288 or contact Fiona Kennedy (UQ communications, 07 3365 1088; 0413 380 012).
