Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University, ON, N6A 5B9, London, Canada.
Faculty of Information & Media Studies, Western University, ON, London, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Jun 13;22(1):1175. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13550-w.
Violence against women (VAW) is a major public health problem that grew worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. While all services were impacted by changing pandemic guidance, VAW shelters, as congregate settings with multiple funders and regulators, faced unique challenges.
We conducted a qualitative analysis of interviews with 26 women's shelter staff and eight women accessing care, as well as 10 focus groups (five each at two time points approximately a year apart) involving 24 leaders from VAW and related services in Ontario, Canada.
We identified eight overlapping themes specific to government and public health COVID-19 regulations and their application in women's shelters. Overall, inconsistency or lack of clarity in rules, and how they were communicated, caused significant stress for women using, and staff providing, services. Staff and leaders were very concerned about rules that isolated women or replicated other aspects of abusive relationships. Women wanted to understand what options were available and what was expected of them and their children in these spaces. Leaders sought clarity and consistency from their various government funders, and from public health authorities, in the face of ever-evolving directives. As in the broader public, there was often the perception that the rules did not apply equally to everyone, for example, for women of colour using VAW services, or those whose first language was not English.
In the absence of consistent pandemic guidance and how to implement it, many VAW services devised tailored solutions to balance safety from COVID-19 with women's physical and emotional safety from abuse and its impacts. However, this was difficult and exhausting. A key policy implication is that women's shelters are a distinct form of congregate housing; they are very different in terms of services provided, size, type and age of facilities from other congregate settings and this must be reflected in public health directives. Better communication and synchronization of policies among government funders and public health authorities, in consultation with VAW sector leaders, would mean protocols tailored to minimize harm to women and children while protecting health and safety.
针对妇女的暴力（VAW）是一个严重的公共卫生问题，在 COVID-19 大流行期间有所加剧。虽然所有服务都受到不断变化的大流行指导方针的影响，但避难所作为有多个资助者和监管者的聚集场所，面临着独特的挑战。
我们对加拿大安大略省 26 名妇女避难所工作人员和 8 名寻求护理的妇女进行了访谈，并对 10 个焦点小组（每个小组 5 个，大约相隔一年进行两次）进行了分析，这些焦点小组涉及 24 名来自 VAW 和相关服务的领导者。
我们确定了与政府和公共卫生 COVID-19 法规及其在妇女避难所中的应用相关的八个重叠主题。总体而言，规则的不一致或缺乏明确性，以及它们的传达方式，给使用服务的妇女和提供服务的工作人员带来了巨大的压力。工作人员和领导者非常关注隔离妇女或复制虐待关系其他方面的规则。妇女希望了解在这些空间中可用的选择以及对她们及其子女的期望。面对不断变化的指令，领导者从他们的各个政府资助者以及公共卫生当局那里寻求明确性和一致性。与更广泛的公众一样，人们常常认为这些规则并不平等适用于每个人，例如，对于使用 VAW 服务的有色人种妇女或那些第一语言不是英语的妇女。
在缺乏一致的大流行指导方针及其实施方式的情况下，许多 VAW 服务机构制定了量身定制的解决方案，以平衡 COVID-19 带来的安全风险与妇女免受虐待及其影响的身心安全。然而，这是困难和累人的。一个关键的政策影响是，妇女避难所是一种独特的集体住房形式；它们在提供的服务、设施的大小、类型和年龄方面与其他集体住所非常不同，这必须反映在公共卫生指令中。政府资助者和公共卫生当局在与 VAW 部门领导者协商的情况下，更好地沟通和同步政策，将意味着制定协议以最大限度地减少对妇女和儿童的伤害，同时保护健康和安全。
