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In a significant step to enhance the role of dental professionals in identifying and responding to domestic abuse, IRISi is set to offer two CPD-verifiable, two-hour online training sessions specifically designed for dentistry teams. These sessions follow a successful initial webinar attended by over 300 dental professionals from the UK and internationally.

[Click here to watch Introduction to Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence for Dental Teams | Free Webinar Recording]

The urgency for this training emerges from compelling statistics highlighting that 75% of domestic abuse-related injuries affect the head and neck region – areas routinely assessed by dental professionals. Dentists, hygienists, therapists, and dental nurses are uniquely positioned not just to detect physical signs like facial injuries and dental trauma but also to identify less visible behavioural cues such as anxiety, hesitance in engaging with treatment, or indicators of coercion.

The recently held webinar was met with highly positive feedback:

  • “Really useful webinar and introduction for recognising signs of domestic abuse and sexual violence,” noted a dental therapist.
  • “Great session, very informative, looking forward to attending the next session,” remarked one dentist.
  • A dental nurse tutor shared, “This session was really good. I enjoyed the stories that linked dental professionals to domestic violence.”

Building on this success, IRISi’s upcoming two-hour training, “Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness for Dental Teams”, aims to provide comprehensive insight into various forms of domestic abuse and sexual violence, including coercive control, non-fatal strangulation, and harmful practices. Participants will learn how to use clinical enquiry to identify and respond appropriately, conduct risk assessments, and effectively document safeguarding concerns.

What you will learn:

  • Understanding abuse: Gain insight into domestic abuse and sexual violence, including an introduction to coercive control, non-fatal strangulation, and harmful practices.
  • Health implications: Reflect on how domestic abuse and sexual violence manifest as health issues and how patients may present in a dental setting.
  • Barriers to leaving: Develop an awareness of what keeps individuals in abusive relationships, challenging common misconceptions.
  • Clinical enquiry: Learn how to use clinical enquiry to identify and respond to patients at risk.
  • Risk assessment & safeguarding: Understand the process of assessing risk and safeguarding patients, as well as why it is essential to effectively document concerns.

Why attend?

These sessions will provide practical tools and insights to help dental professionals recognise and respond to domestic abuse and sexual violence within their practice. Enhance your ability to safeguard and support patients experiencing abuse. Don’t miss this crucial learning opportunity for your dental team.

Upon completion of the session, you will be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of domestic abuse and sexual violence, including coercive control, non-fatal strangulation, and harmful practices.
  • Develop an awareness of what keeps someone in an abusive relationship.
  • Recognise domestic abuse and sexual violence as health issues and understand how patients may present in a dental setting.
  • Define how clinical enquiry can be used to identify and respond to patients experiencing domestic abuse and sexual violence.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of risk assessing, safeguarding, and documenting concerns.
  • Provide specialist domestic abuse and sexual violence contact and signposting information to patients.

Upcoming sessions – please choose from one of the dates below:

Tuesday, 1st April 2025, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. [Register here]

Wednesday, 21st May 2025, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. [Register here]

Participants will receive CPD certificates upon completion, underscoring the professional and ethical importance of this training.

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Partners

AVA
AVA
AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to  inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives
SafeLives
SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

About us

IMKAAN
IMKAAN
IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC
The University of Bristol CAPC
The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research.  It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV
STADV
STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact
Spring Impact
Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.

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