Yakubovich Alexa R, Steele Bridget, Cullum Jessie, Johnson Christine P, Parker Lindsey N, Wilson Susan J, Green Robert, Fashan Shelley, Burgess Stacy, Rose Annette Elliott
Dalhousie University, Canada.
Nova Scotia Health, Canada.
Prev Med Rep. 2025 Apr 3;53:103058. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2025.103058. eCollection 2025 May.
Violence against women (VAW) has detrimental health consequences, making the health system an important intervention point. There are no large-scale Canadian studies on health system preparedness or practices related to VAW using data collected in the last 20 years. We investigated health professionals' knowledge and practices around VAW in Nova Scotia, which has the highest self-reported prevalence of intimate partner violence against women of all Canadian provinces. We surveyed 1649 participants working in health services and policy in Nova Scotia in partnership with knowledge users across the VAW and health sectors. We descriptively analyzed quantitative data on knowledge and practices related to domestic and sexualized violence (the most common forms of VAW). Over 90 % of participants worked in areas of high priority to addressing VAW (e.g., mental health and addictions), yet only 35 % reported that addressing domestic or sexualized violence was part of their team's goals. Nearly half the sample (43 %) reported seeing at least one new case of abuse in their work in the last six months, two-thirds of whom had not received training on domestic or sexualized violence since March 2020. Participants reported significant deficits in VAW-related knowledge and systems-level supports, including inadequate referral resources, time, and space to respond to violence among patients. We found significant gaps in current health system capacity to respond to VAW in one of Canada's most impacted provinces, despite increased awareness and programming around VAW since March 2020. Given the health inequities faced by survivors, health sectors must be better equipped to respond to VAW.
暴力侵害妇女行为（VAW）会对健康产生有害影响，这使得卫生系统成为一个重要的干预点。在过去20年里，加拿大没有利用所收集的数据对卫生系统针对暴力侵害妇女行为的准备情况或相关做法进行大规模研究。我们调查了新斯科舍省卫生专业人员关于暴力侵害妇女行为的知识和做法，该省自我报告的亲密伴侣暴力侵害妇女行为发生率在加拿大所有省份中最高。我们与暴力侵害妇女行为和卫生领域的知识使用者合作，对新斯科舍省从事卫生服务和政策工作的1649名参与者进行了调查。我们对与家庭暴力和性暴力（暴力侵害妇女行为最常见的形式）相关的知识和做法的定量数据进行了描述性分析。超过90%的参与者在应对暴力侵害妇女行为的高度优先领域工作（如心理健康和成瘾问题），但只有35%的人报告称应对家庭暴力或性暴力是其团队目标的一部分。近一半的样本（43%）报告称在过去六个月的工作中至少见过一例新的虐待案件，其中三分之二的人自2020年3月以来未接受过关于家庭暴力或性暴力的培训。参与者报告称在与暴力侵害妇女行为相关的知识和系统层面的支持方面存在重大不足，包括转介资源、时间和应对患者暴力行为的空间不足。我们发现，尽管自2020年3月以来对暴力侵害妇女行为的认识有所提高且开展了相关项目，但在加拿大受影响最严重的省份之一，当前卫生系统应对暴力侵害妇女行为的能力仍存在重大差距。鉴于幸存者面临的健康不平等问题，卫生部门必须更好地做好应对暴力侵害妇女行为的准备。
