Healthcare Workers; Their role in Helping
Victims of Abuse and Domestic Violence
Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, Tutorsindia info@ tutorsindia.com
I. INTRODUCTION
The issue of abuse and domestic violence which is
commonly termed as domestic abuse, is considered
as a problem that impacts women as well as men.
This would be irrespective of their caste, financial
status, ethnic origin, educational qualifications or
sexual orientations [1]. Domestic abuse has been
defined in several ways and many terms have been
utilized to describe it. Across several developed
nations there are terms such as; spousal violence,
intimate partner violence or family abuse that have
been used commonly. Such terms are extensively
used to widely elucidate the kind of violence or
abuse which might occur within people in the age
group of 18 or above and is generally distinct from
sexual abuse and violence or child abuse [2]. The
impact from domestic abuse is known to affect all
Figure 1: Percentage of Adults (16-74years) who
Experienced Domestic Abuse in 2020
Source: Nick Stripe
It has been clearly stated by Public health
guideline [5] that professionals from the domain of
healthcare have a responsibility to extend support
facets in the life of the victim such as; social,
mental, economic and financial [3]. In addition,
individuals who are exposed to domestic violence
have more scope to experience issues in health,
have the propensity to miss work and thus suffer
loss of income which impacts the nation as well. As
per evidence presented by the, it is said that around
1.9 million people in the UK, aged between 16 – 59
years, experience domestic abuse. Between men
and women, women are more prone to experience
domestic abuse. The rate of prevalence of domestic
abuse has been estimated as 6 out of every 100
adults, at the rate of 4.3% men and 7.5% women,
thus leading to 713000 men and 1.2 million women
[4].
to individuals who have been impacted by domestic
abuse. Nonetheless, prevalent evidence has
indicated that the focus of social workers is mostly
on issues pertaining to child protection and
children, while tending to ignore adult victims of
abuse. Evidence presented by Robbins and Cook,
[1] also indicated that those individuals who have
experienced domestic abuse and have interacted
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with social workers’ state that social workers were
not very helpful in terms of facilitating the required
support. Therefore, this paper would explore the
role of social workers in providing care to victims
of domestic abuse. The roles would mainly be;
victim identification, referring to specialist
domestic violence services and extending legal
assistance.
III. REFERRING TO SPECIALIST SERVICES
ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS
II. VICTIM IDENTIFICATION
As far as healthcare professionals are
concerned, victim identification is quite significant.
Though the evidence in this context is mixed in
terms of the need for routine screening for
identifying domestic abuse victims, it has been
empirically proven that healthcare professionals are
required to do more for victim identification [6].
Considering that social workers have more
probability of being in touch with individuals who
are in such abusive situations, there is scope that
would improve identification of an abuse victim.
Appropriate response is a major aspect of victim
identification in situations where individuals might
reveal the abuse they are experiencing [7].
Considering that concerns have risen about distrust
of social workers in extending to adult victims of
domestic abuse, social workers are expected to be
rather empathetic while responding to victims and
their families in instances of abuse. This would go
a long way in developing trust.
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A significant role that social workers are
supposed to play would be to refer domestic abuse
victims to specialist services. Though social
workers are not expected to have the expertise to
provide the required specialist support, they should
be in a position to refer victims to the right
specialist. Most victims fail to approach specialist
service providing agencies owing to several
agencies [8] but when victims are referred to
specialist services by social workers, it becomes
easy for the victims to consider the referral. Some
common barriers faced by victims include; fear of
repercussion, stigma, shame, disbelief and fear of
being blamed [9]. Therefore, due academic
assistance from social workers would enable
victims to get the required help.
IV. LEGAL ASSISTANCE
Modifications effected recently within
legislation has indicated that social workers play a
major role in extending support to individuals who
have been exposed to violence or victims of
domestic abuse. As per the Legal Aid, Sentencing
and Punishment of Offenders Act, the level of
evidence which can be permitted to provide support
for matter relating to domestic abuse. Though it has
been specified in the Act that documentary
evidence could be provided by healthcare workers
to facilitate legal assistance, there was no clarity on
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documentary evidence that social workers could
provide [10]. Nonetheless, changes effected in the
law in the UK[law academic writing help] has
revealed that social workers have been
acknowledged as individuals who can clearly
identify as well as refer victims of domestic abuse
thereby, extending documentary proof thus
allowing victims to gain legal assistance.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.g2913.
[7]
L. J. Bacchus, A. M. Buller, G. Ferrari, P.
Brzank, and G. Feder, “‘It’s Always Good to
Ask’: A Mixed Methods Study on the Perceived
Role of Sexual Health Practitioners Asking Gay
and Bisexual Men About Experiences of
Domestic Violence and Abuse,” J. Mix.
Methods Res., vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 221–243, Apr.
2018, doi: 10.1177/1558689816651808.
[8]
A. Malpass, K. Sales, M. Johnson, A. Howell,
R. Agnew-Davies, and G. Feder, “Women’s
experiences of referral to a domestic violence
advocate in UK primary care settings: a serviceuser collaborative study,” Br. J. Gen. Pract.,
vol. 64, no. 620, pp. e151–e158, Mar. 2014, doi:
10.3399/bjgp14X677527.
[9]
D. Spencer, A. Dodge, R. Ricciardelli, and D.
Ballucci, “‘I Think It’s Re-Victimizing Victims
Almost Every Time’: Police Perceptions of
Criminal Justice Responses to Sexual
Violence,” Crit. Criminol., vol. 26, no. 2, pp.
189–209, Jun. 2018, doi: 10.1007/s10612-0189390-2.
[10]
Owen Bowcott and Alexandra Topping,
“Domestic abuse victims with ‘trapped capital’
should not be denied legal aid, court rules,”
2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/
25/domestic-abuse-victims-with-trapped-capitalshould-not-be-denied-legal-aid-court-rules
(accessed Nov. 01, 2020).
V. CONCLUSION
The issue of domestic abuse is no doubt a
private problem which tends to have huge impact
on public health as well as well-being of
individuals and the nation. It leads to the creation
of major problems in health which makes an impact
on the economy of the nation, the ability of the
abused individual to study and work and also to the
healthcare system on the whole. This essay
explored the role of social workers and healthcare
professionals in extending support to victims of
domestic abuse.
REFERENCES
[1]
R. Robbins and K. Cook, “‘Don’t Even Get Us
Started on Social Workers’: Domestic Violence,
Social Work and Trust—An Anecdote from
Research,” Br. J. Soc. Work, vol. 48, no. 6, pp.
1664–1681,
Sep.
2018,
doi:
10.1093/bjsw/bcx125.
[2]
Z. Rakovec-Felser, “Domestic violence and
abuse in intimate relationship from public health
perspective,” Heal. Psychol. Res., vol. 2, no. 3,
Oct. 2014, doi: 10.4081/hpr.2014.1821.
[3]
O. Femi-Ajao, S. Kendal, and K. Lovell, “A
qualitative systematic review of published work
on disclosure and help-seeking for domestic
violence and abuse among women from ethnic
minority populations in the UK,” Ethn. Health,
vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 732–746, Jul. 2020, doi:
10.1080/13557858.2018.1447652.
[4]
Nick Stripe, “Domestic abuse prevalence and
trends, England and Wales: year ending March
2020,”
2020.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandco
mmunity/crimeandjustice/articles/domesticabuse
prevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendin
gmarch2020.
[5]
Public health guideline, “Domestic violence and
abuse:
multi-agency
working,”
2014.
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph50.
[6]
L. J. O’Doherty, A. Taft, K. Hegarty, J. Ramsay,
L. L. Davidson, and G. Feder, “Screening
women for intimate partner violence in
healthcare
settings:
abridged
Cochrane
systematic review and meta-analysis,” BMJ, vol.
348, no. may12 1, pp. g2913–g2913, May 2014,
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