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A synthesis of recent VISION activities: Sharing the research and practice of adolescent domestic abuse identification and prevention

    Adolescent domestic abuse (ADA) goes by many names, sometimes referred to as toxic teenage relationships. ADA includes physical, emotional, and/ or sexual abuse that occurs between young people who are, or were, dating. It is often overlooked in research, policy and practice. As a phenomenon, abusive behaviour between adolescents in intimate relationships remains relatively invisible, due in part to the persistent yet unfounded assumption that domestic abuse is something that only occurs between adults.

    The Crime Survey for England and Wales finds that women aged 16 to 19 are more likely to experience domestic abuse than older age groups (ONS, 2020), but despite the prevalence, women in this age group are less likely to be referred to support services (SafeLives, 2017).

    SafeLives discovered, on average, experiencing abusive behaviour from a partner begins at age 14 or 15, (2017). Further research in Wales found that among those aged 11-16 years old experienced a range of mental health and social impacts associated with experiencing domestic abuse, including teenage pregnancy, self-harm, and violent behaviour (Young et al, 2021).

    With this landscape in mind and led by the need from our partners and to ensure intersectoral collaboration, VISION set up a working group with Thames Valley Police, SafeLives, Islington Borough Council, H.O.P.E Training, Respect, Youth Realities and others to investigate ADA via three activities:

    1. ADA rapid systematic review to synthesise existing research and data on ADA in teenage relationships (January 2024; funded by the City St George’s, UoL, Policy Support Fund).
    2. ADA workshop: ‘Too Soon, Too Late’ organised by VISION with SafeLives Changemakers and young people who experienced abuse in their relationships when they were aged 13 to 16 (March 2024; funded by the City St George’s, UoL, Participatory Research Fund).
    3. ADA conference, an event to bring together practitioners, people with lived experience, police, researchers, and policymakers working in the ADA environment (April 2024; funded by the City St George’s, UoL, HEIF KE Fund).

    The report, Summary of the VISION Adolescent Domestic Abuse activities and events in 2024, is available online. It summarises the findings and recommendations of the review, workshop and conference for a roundtable of police, local government, academics, practitioners and specialist services working in the field held in June 2024. It was produced for the working group as an aid to distil the thinking thus far across the three VISION activities.

    ADA Rapid Systematic Review

    The VISION review investigates ADA by examining the terminology and related terminology used in the literature. The paper focuses on the perpetration and victimisation as it concerns adolescents, especially those under 16 years old, and the factors that act as protective and recovery mechanisms for young people experiencing ADA.

    VISION researchers, led by Dr Ruth Weir, conducted a systematic rapid review of 79 papers from databases for peer-reviewed literature.

    The team discovered definitional issues, an overemphasis on quantitative studies, and a lack of attention to ADA when it intersects with cultural factors, gender differences, criminalisation, and poor mental health. Many of the studies report on school-based settings, with limited reporting and understanding of the role of neighbourhood factors in acting as protective and recovery mechanisms. Additionally, literature on impacted adolescents and their help-seeking behaviours is sparse. The review revealed that evidence on abuse affecting adolescents in the UK remains patchy.

    Highlights from the VISION ADA rapid review: Gaps, limitations & considerations for future research

    ADA workshop: Too Soon, Too Late

    Dr Polina Obolenskaya and Dr Annie Bunce, VISION Research Fellows, collaborated on a consultation project, “Too soon, too late”, with the SafeLives Changemakers and with young people who experienced abuse in their relationships when they were aged 13 to 16. The main aim of the consultation was to develop a robust, methodological framework for a future adolescent domestic abuse (ADA) research proposal.

    Together with SafeLives, a charity working to end domestic violence, they co-developed the material for the online workshop, a focus group, with young people, which took place in March 2024, and was facilitated by the ‘Changemakers’, a group of young people passionate about amplifying the voices of survivors of domestic abuse. They work alongside SafeLives providing a young person’s expertise on the charity’s work, conducting research, and working to influence policy change.

    Some of the preliminary themes from the workshop include:

    1. Lack of recognition amongst young people of both domestic abuse (DA) in general, and ADA specifically.
    2. Young people don’t easily identify their own experiences of ADA as DA.
    3. Young people’s understanding of ADA changes over time.
    4. Young people highlighted the wide variation in experiences of ADA and professional responses to it.
    5. Young people can identify clear priorities for future ADA research.
    6. Young people see school as a key point of early intervention, but feel that improvement is needed in terms of better education around healthy relationships and school cultures that encourage open discussion around DA whilst actively challenging attitudes and behaviours conducive to ADA and sexual violence.

    Further information can be found in the report available for downloading online.

    ADA Conference

    The Adolescent Domestic Abuse conference held on 18 April brought together 161 academics, practitioners, and policy makers to share existing research, policy and practice. Dr Ruth Weir, Senior Research Fellow at the Violence & Society Centre and the VISION research project at City, and Katy Barrow Grint, Assistant Chief Constable at Thames Valley Police, welcomed the delegates.

    Louise Rolfe, OBE, Metropolitan Police and National Police Chief Council lead for Domestic Abuse was a keynote speaker. Louise spoke about the national context of domestic abuse, highlighting the most harmful abuse that is seen is coercive control and that domestic abuse accounts for more than 30% of violent crime. She also spoke about the role of the media requiring scrutiny and the need for sustainable long-term systemic solutions.

    Professor Christine Barter, Co-Director of the Connect Centre for International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm, University of Central Lancashire, also gave a keynote. She provided an overview of her 15 years of research exploring the prevalence, subjective impact and risk factors associated with abuse in young people’s relationships in her presentation, Researching abuse within teenage relationships: A critique of a decade’s work and what we could do better. Her mixed-method body of work addressed both victimisation and perpetration for young people aged 13 to 17.

    There were panels on Teenage relationships and abuse: What the research says; Sexual violence in teenage relationships; and Specialist services and local government. Presenters included academics sharing their ADA research from Loughborough University and Durham University and specialist domestic violence organisations like SafeLives, Refuge, and Women’s Aid. Islington Borough Council, representing local government, discussed their work on a multi-agency model project to identify, intervene and protect teenagers experience ADA.

    For the full synthesis please see: Summary of the VISION Adolescent Domestic Abuse activities and events in 2024

    References

    ONS (2020), Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2020, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwalesoverview/november2020.

    Safelives, 2017. Spotlight #3: Young people and domestic abuse,  https://safelives.org.uk/knowledge-hub/spotlights/spotlight-3-young-people-and-domestic-abuse. 

    Young, H., Long, S.J., Melendez-Torres, G.J., Kim, H.S., Hewitt, G., Murphy, S., Moore, G.F., 2021. Dating and relationship violence victimization and perpetration among 11–16-year-olds in Wales: a cross-sectional analysis of the School Health Research Network (SHRN) survey. Journal of Public Health 43, 111–122. 

    Photography licensed by Adobe Photo Stock

    Celebrating courage: Empowering voices against honour-based abuse

      Join IKWRO and the UKPRP VISION consortium for an enlightening and impactful event dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of “honour”-based abuse

      We are proud to partner with women’s rights organisation, IKWRO, and host their upcoming event, Celebrating courage: Empowering voices against honour-based abuse, Friday 18 October 2024 at City, UoL.

      IKWRO works to safeguard and empower women and girls against ‘honour-based’ abuse across the UK. Their mission is to advance Middle Eastern, North African, and Afghan women’s and girls’ rights, tackle discrimination and violence against women and girls, and empower women and girls to access their rights and entitlements in the UK. 

      In honour of the International Day of the Girl Child, this in-person event is dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of “honour”-based abuse, which is predominantly suffered by women and girls.

      Professionals, students, survivors, and anyone interested in understanding and combating honour-based abuse are welcome. This is an opportunity to learn from experts, connect with others in the field, and contribute to a meaningful dialogue on this important issue.

      Event Highlights

      • Panel Discussions with a Q&A Session: An open forum for attendees to engage with our speakers and ask questions about honour-based abuse and how to tackle it effectively.
      • Experts in the field will discuss the nuances of honour-based abuse, its identification, and the challenges in differentiating it from domestic violence.
      • Survivors and advocates will share their personal stories and discuss support systems and empowerment strategies.

      Event Details

      Reflections on producing evidence syntheses on violence and abuse

        The VISION systematic review team, Dr Natalia Lewis, Dr Elizabeth Cook, Dr Jessica Corsi, Dr Sophie Carlisle and Dr Annie Bunce, presented at the London Evidence Syntheses and Research Use Seminars on 17 July 2024. The event was an initiative jointly hosted by the EPPI Centre (at UCL) and the Centre for Evaluation at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

        The team presented under the collective theme Producing evidence syntheses on violence and abuse: reflections on the disciplinary variations and practicalities, with the aim of prompting conversation about how systematic review methodologies can be adapted across disciplines. Dr Natalia Lewis (Systematic Review Lead, University of Bristol) introduced the session, describing the emergence of systematic reviews at the top of the ‘hierarchy of evidence’ that is often referenced in evidence-based medicine. Accompanying systematic reviews are a range of reporting standards, tools and guidance stipulating recommended practices for conducting reviews. However, as the team discussed in their presentations, such standardised frameworks and approaches do not provide space for reflection on the process and implications of adapting these methodologies to evidence on violence and abuse.

        The seminar included the following presentations:

        • Dr Elizabeth Cook (City, University of London): Evidence syntheses in a global context: A systematic review of sex/gender disaggregated homicide.
        • Dr Jessica Corsi (City, University of London): Evidence synthesis on legal records: challenges and adaptations.
        • Dr Sophie Carlisle (Health Innovation East Midlands): Evidence synthesis in the context of UK domestic and sexual violence services: Involving professional stakeholders.

        The presentations are available to view and download below.

        Dr Natalia Lewis, Producing evidence syntheses on violence and abuse: reflections on the disciplinary variations and practicalities

        Lewis – IntroductionDownload

        Dr Sophie Carlisle, Evidence synthesis in the context of UK domestic and sexual violence services: involving professional stakeholders

        Carlisle – Involving stakeholdersDownload

        Dr Elizabeth Cook, Evidence synthesis in a global context: A systematic review of sex/gender disaggregated homicide

        Cook – Homicide in a global contextDownload

        Dr Jessica Corsi, Evidence synthesis on legal records: Challenges and adaptations

        Corsi – Evidence synthesis on legal recordsDownload

        The seminar was held in hybrid format. The talks were recorded and are available through the following link: https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Coursesseminars/Previousseminarsandevents/tabid/3317/Default.aspx

        Uncovering ‘hidden’ violence against older people

          By Dr Anastasia Fadeeva, VISION Research Fellow

          Violence against older people is often overlooked. As a society, we often associate violence with young people, gangs, unsafe streets, and ‘knife crime’. However, violence also takes place behind front doors, perpetuated by families and partners, and victims include older people. 

          Some older people may be particularly vulnerable due to poorer physical health, disability, dependence on others, and financial challenges after retirement. Policy rarely addresses the safety of this population, with even health and social care professionals sometimes assuming that violence does not affect older people. For example, doctors may dismiss injuries or depression as inevitable problems related to old age and miss opportunities to identify victims (1). In addition, older people may be less likely to report violence and abuse because they themselves may not recognise it, do not want to accuse family members, or out of fear (2). 

          Given victims of violence often remain invisible to health and social services, police, or charities, the most reliable statistics on violence often come from national surveys such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) conducted by the Office for National Statistics. However, for a long time the CSEW self-completion – the part of the interview with the most detail on violence and abuse – excluded those aged 60 or more, and only recently extended to include those over 74. Some national surveys specifically focus on older people, but these ask very little about violence and abuse. Additionally, despite people in care homes or other institutional settings experiencing a higher risk of violence, it can be challenging to collect information from them. Therefore, many surveys only interview people in private households, which excludes many higher-risk groups.

          We need a better grasp of the extent and nature of violence and abuse in older populations. First, reliable figures can improve the allocation of resources and services targeted at the protection of older people. Second, better statistics can identify the risk factors for experiencing violence in later life and the most vulnerable groups.

          In the VISION consortium, we used the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS 2014) to examine violence in people aged 60 and over in England (3). While we found that older people of minoritised ethnic backgrounds are at higher risk of violence (prevalence of 6.0% versus 1.7% in white people in 12 months prior to the survey), more research needs to be done to distinguish the experiences of different ethnic groups. Our research also showed that loneliness and social isolation were strongly related to violence in later life. Older people may experience social isolation due to limiting health issues or economic situations, and perpetrators can exploit this (4). Moreover, isolation of victims is a tool commonly used by perpetrators, especially in cases of domestic abuse (5).  Knowing about these and other risk factors can help us better spot and protect potential victims.

          Additionally, more needs to be learnt about the consequences of life course exposure to violence for health and well-being in later life. This is still a relatively unexplored area due to limited data and a lack of reporting from older victims and survivors. It is sometimes more difficult to establish the link between violence and health problems because the health impacts are not always immediate but can accumulate or emerge in later life (6). Also, as people develop more illnesses as they age, it is more challenging to distinguish health issues attributable to violence. Therefore we are also using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to examine temporal relationships between lifetime violence exposure and health in older age.

          In an inclusive society, every member should be able to lead a life where they feel safe and respected. We are delighted that the CSEW has removed the upper age limit to data collection on domestic abuse, which is one step towards making older victims and survivors heard. Continuous work on uncovering the ‘hidden’ statistics and examining the effects of intersectional characteristics on violence is crucial in making our society more inclusive, equal, and safe for everyone. For example, one VISION study (7) has demonstrated that the risks of repeated victimisation in domestic relationships had opposite trends for men and women as they aged. We are committed to support the Hourglass Manifesto to end the abuse of older people (8), and are willing to provide decision makers with evidence to enable a safer ageing society.

          For further information, please see: Violence against older people and associations with mental health: A national probability sample survey of the general population in England – ScienceDirect

          Or please contact Anastasia at anastasia.fadeeva@city.ac.uk

          Footnotes

          • 1.  SafeLives U. Safe later lives: Older people and domestic abuse, spotlights report. 2016.
          • 2.  Age UK. No Age Limit: the blind spot of older victims and survivors in the Domestic Abuse Bill. 2020.
          • 3.  Fadeeva A, Hashemi L, Cooper C, Stewart R, McManus S. Violence against older people and mental health: a probability sample survey of the general population. forthcoming.
          • 4.  Tung EL, Hawkley LC, Cagney KA, Peek ME. Social isolation, loneliness, and violence exposure in urban adults. Health Affairs. 2019;38(10):1670-8.
          • 5.  Stark E. Coercive control. Violence against women: Current theory and practice in domestic abuse, sexual violence and exploitation. 2013:17-33.
          • 6.  Knight L, Hester M. Domestic violence and mental health in older adults. International review of psychiatry. 2016;28(5):464-74.
          • 7.  Weir R. Differentiating risk: The association between relationship type and risk of repeat victimization of domestic abuse. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. 2024;18:paae024.
          • 8.  Hourglass. Manifesto A Safer Ageing Society by 2050. 2024.

          Photo from licensed Adobe Stock library

          Presentations from the 2024 VISION Annual Conference

            The presentations from the 3rd VISION annual conference are now available for downloading.

            The event was held at Kings College London, Strand campus, on 11 June. The theme was Violence prevention in research and policy: Bridging silos. Keynote speakers, Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno (World Health Organisation) and Professor Katrin Hohl (City, UoL) considered the changes needed for effective violence prevention from the perspectives of health and justice. Three symposiums highlighted interdisciplinary research from the VISION consortium and partners on:

            – Violence against older people: Challenges in research and policy;

            – Learning across statutory review practices: Origins, ambitions and future directions; and

            – Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace

            Approximately 80 academics, central and local government officials, practitioners, and voluntary and community sector organisations attended from a range of health and crime / justice disciplines.

            All the slides that could be shared are available below. Please feel free to download.

            Photo caption: Symposium 3, ‘Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace’. From left to right: Chair, Dr Olumide Adisa (University of Suffolk) and Panellists Dr Vanessa Gash (City, UoL), Dr Alison Gregory (Alison Gregory Consulting), Catherine Buglass (Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse) and Dr Niels Blom (City, UoL)

            Professor Gene Feder, VISION Director – Welcome – 1 download

            Welcome_VISION-Annual-Conference-2024Download

            Keynote Speaker, Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno – Violence against women: From research to policy and action – 1 download

            Keynote-Speaker-2_Research-to-policy-and-action_2Download

            Symposium 1 – Violence against older people: Challenges in research and policy – 4 downloads (Hourglass, Office for National Statistics, Public Health Wales & VISION)

            Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_HourglassDownload
            Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_ONSDownload
            Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_PHWDownload
            Symposium-1_Older-people-and-violence_VISIONDownload

            Symposium 2 – Learning across statutory review practices: Origins, ambitions and future directions – 1 download

            Symposium-2_Statutory-Review-Practice_AllDownload

            Symposium 3 – Responding to experiences and expressions of interpersonal violence in the workplace – 3 downloads (Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse, and 2 from VISION)

            Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_VISIONDownload
            Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_EIDADownload
            Symposium-3_Violence-and-the-workplace_VISION-2Download

            Unleashing social media potential to research violence against women and girls in Iran

              Researching violence against women and girls (VAWG) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) presents unique challenges, primarily due to various contextual factors that hinder conventional survey methodologies. These challenges include limited funding, political obstacles, and safety concerns for both researchers and participants. Consequently, traditional survey approaches may prove unfeasible or inadequate in capturing the complex realities of VAWG in these settings.

              VAWG is a particularly pressing issue in Iran, a Middle Eastern country marked by its patriarchal structure and systematic and pervasive gender discrimination. The patriarchal and legal structure of the country perpetuates gender inequalities and reinforces societal norms that tolerate or even condone violence against women. Yet, understanding the full scope of VAWG in Iran remains hindered by a lack of robust data.

              In a recently published study, VISION researchers, Ladan Hashemi and Sally McManus, collaborated with counterparts from Bristol University (Nadia Aghtaie) and Iran (Fateme Babakhani) to explore the effectiveness of social media in recruiting victims of violence in Iran, shedding light on their experiences and the potential of social media as a research tool.

              The findings revealed valuable insights into the manifestation and context of VAWG in Iran. Social media recruitment proved to be effective in reaching a diverse sample of victims and provided crucial insights into the dynamics of violence, the identities of perpetrators, and the settings where violence occurs. Victims often reported experiences from more than one type of perpetrator, spanning both public and domestic spheres. While social media recruitment offers broad reach and a safer environment for data collection, it also presents challenges such as sampling biases which affect the generalisability of findings.

              For further information please see: Social Sciences | Free Full-Text | Using Social Media to Recruit Seldom-Heard Groups: Reaching Women and Girls with Experience of Violence in Iran (mdpi.com)

              Or contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@city.ac.uk  

              Photo from licensed Adobe Stock library

              Consultation: Is there a need for a VAWG data dashboard?

                In 2022, the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) developed a prototype violence against women and girls (VAWG) dashboard. The tool presents statistics and charts on violence against women and girls in England and Wales, drawing on multiple sources. However, due to re-prioritisation at ONS, maintenance of the dashboard was halted and from 1st April 2024 it will no longer be accessible.

                The VISION consortium is consulting on whether there is need for a VAWG data dashboard. This consultation is seeking views on:

                •  Whether the dashboard was useful
                •  Who used it and why
                •  If the dashboard was to continue, what aspects should be kept, dropped or added.

                The consultation link is here: Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

                Anyone interested in the idea of a VAWG data dashboard is welcome to respond to the survey, particularly if interested in using one in the future.

                Answer as many questions as you like. You can provide contact details or complete this anonymously. The findings will be used to draft a report and provide recommendations on whether the dashboard should continue. The report will include a list of the groups and organisations that participated (where details are provided). Individuals will not be named, although quotes may be taken from the text provided. The report may be published, for example on the VISION website.

                The ONS VAWG dashboard was available online until 31 March 2024. Therefore, if you would like to participate in this consultation, please view the sample screenshots of the tool below.

                This consultation closes Monday 22 April.

                For further information, please contact us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

                Sample-screenshots-of-ONS-VAWG-dashboardDownload

                VISION/VASC Webinar Series: IPV and the LGBTQI+ communities

                  This event is in the past.

                  We are pleased to announce the VISION and Violence & Society Centre (VASC) Webinar Series.

                  The purpose of the series is to provide a platform for academia, government and the voluntary and community sector that work to reduce and prevent violence to present their work / research to a wider audience. This is a multidisciplinary platform and we welcome speakers from across a variety of fields such as health, crime, policing, ethnicity, migration, sociology, social work, primary care, front line services, etc.

                  Our first webinar is Tuesday, 20 February 2024, 1300 – 1350. We welcome Dr Steven Maxwell, Research Associate in the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability and Associate in the School of Health and Wellbeing, at the University of Glasgow.

                  Steven will present his research on intimate partner violence within the LGBTQI+ communities. He is a former mental health nurse and completed his PhD in Global Public Health at University College London in 2021. Steven’s PhD explored HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake/adherence among men who have sex with men who engaged in sexualised drug use. His current interest is researching health inequities/social justices across minority and deprived populations, particularly sexual & mental health, and related substance use.   

                  To register for the event in order to receive the Teams invitation and / or if interested in presenting at a future Series, please contact: VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

                  The VISION/VASC Webinar Series is sponsored by the UK Prevention and Research Partnership consortium, Violence, Health and Society (MR-V049879) and the Violence and Society Centre at City, University of London.

                  Cost effectiveness of primary care training & support programme for secondary prevention of DVA

                    Recent research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the Identification and Referral to Improve Safety plus (IRIS+) intervention compared with usual care using feasibility data derived from seven UK general practice sites.

                    IRIS+ is a training and support programme for clinicians working in primary care to aid in their identification of those experiencing or perpetrating domestic violence / abuse (DVA).

                    VISION Deputy Director, Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa and Director, Professor Gene Feder, worked with their University of Bristol colleagues to conduct a cost–utility analysis, a form of economic evaluation comparing cost with patient-centred outcome measures, as a means to measure the benefit obtained from the treatment or intervention.

                    The specific cost-utility analysis they conducted assessed the potential cost-effectiveness of IRIS+ which assists primary care staff in identifying, documenting and referring not only women, but also men and children who may have experienced DVA as victims, perpetrators or both.

                    The analysis showed that in practices that adopted the IRIS+ intervention, a savings of £92 per patient occurred. The incremental net monetary benefit was positive (£145) and the IRIS+ intervention was cost-effective in 55% of simulations (when the model is repeated with different assumptions).

                    The research team therefore concluded that the IRIS+ intervention could be cost-effective in the UK from a societal perspective though there are large uncertainties. To resolve these the team will conduct a large trial with further economic analysis.

                    For further information please see: Primary care system-level training and support programme for the secondary prevention of domestic violence and abuse: a cost-effectiveness feasibility model | BMJ Open

                    Or contact Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa at e.capelasbarbosa@bristol.ac.uk

                    Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash

                    COVID-19 adaptations to a training and support programme to improve primary care response to domestic abuse

                      Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, VISION Deputy Director has recently published, COVID-19 adaptations to a training and support programme to improve primary care response to domestic abuse: a mixed methods rapid study in the BMC Primary Care journal, with Lucy Downes, IRIS Network Director.

                      Increased incidence and/or reporting of domestic abuse (DA) occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the lockdowns across the UK, services providing support to victims had to adapt and consider adding methods of remote outreach to their programmes.

                      Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRIS) is a programme to improve the response to domestic abuse in general practice, providing training for general practice teams and support for patients affected by DA. The COVID-19 pandemic required those running the programme to adapt to online training and remote support.

                      Estela and Lucy employed a mixed methods rapid approach to this research in order to gather evidence around the relevance, desirability and acceptability of IRIS operating remotely. Quantitative IRIS referral data were triangulated with data from surveys and interviews. They found that the adaptation to online training and support of IRIS was acceptable and desirable.

                      This study contributes to practice by asserting the desirability and acceptability of training clinicians to be able to identify, ask about DA and refer to the IRIS programme during telephone/online consultations. The findings from this study may be of interest to (public) health commissioners when making commissioning decisions to improve the general practice response to domestic abuse.

                      For further information please see: COVID-19 adaptations to a training and support programme to improve primary care response to domestic abuse: a mixed methods rapid study | BMC Primary Care (springer.com)

                      Or contact Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa at e.capelasbarbosa@bristol.ac.uk

                      Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash