IRISi Launch 'Look Beyond' for the 16 Days of Action.

IRISi are thrilled to announce the launch of ‘Look Beyond’ – our new annual campaign focusing around the role that healthcare professionals play in the identification and referral of victims of DVA.

‘Look Beyond’ is part of the 16-day call for action following the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and is organised and led by IRISi as part of the Pathfinder project. The Pathfinder consortium consists of five specialist Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) organisations, IRISi, AVA, Imkaan, SafeLives and Standing Together. Pathfinder is working to demonstrate what the best practice response is to patients affected by Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) in general practice, mental health services and the acute health care sector.

‘Look Beyond’ is a campaign asking healthcare professionals to look beyond common symptoms and diagnosis in order to identify and refer victims of DVA. Over the course of the 16 days of action, we will encourage DVA organisations, charities and healthcare professionals to share their stories and experience of identification and referral using the hashtag #lookbeyond.

As part of the campaign, we will be publishing 16 blogs for 16 days, taking in the problem, the scale, the reality and the possible solutions around the topic of DVA in a healthcare setting . These will be written by strategy leaders, survivors and DA professionals including Nicole Jacobs (DVA Commissioner for England and Wales), Medina Johnson (CEO, IRISi) and Donna Covey (CEO at AVA).

IRISi and Pathfinder will also be hosting an event for healthcare professionals on the 3rd of December at The Station in Bristol. The networking event will include talks from healthcare professionals and experts, members of the IRIS teams and DVA survivors, all of whom have had first hand experience of DVA within healthcare settings.

“Domestic violence and abuse has a devastating impact on emotional and physical health.” says Medina Johnson, Chief Executive of IRISi. “We know that women affected by domestic violence and abuse want and expect a helpful response from the professionals they see in the health service. They want their doctor or nurse to notice that something isn’t OK and to ask them about this. Women need these professionals to know what to do next and how to help them to access support. Look Beyond is a fantastic opportunity to encourage all health care professionals to look beyond what they see and hear when they are sitting with a patient. We want them to look beyond the presenting symptoms and explanations and consider, is my patient frightened of anyone? Is anyone hurting them? Is this having an impact on their health? How can I help them get the support that is available to them?”

Medina continues, “It is essential that health care services, providers and professionals understand how DVA affects the patients they care for and to know how they can support these patients to access information and support. We know that a simple enquiry from a doctor or nurse, followed by an understanding response and offer of access to support is priceless for women affected by DVA.”

For more information on the campaign, or our event in December, email allie.bailey@irisi.org.

Partners

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 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.

http://www.safelives.org.uk/about-us

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 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 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

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 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.

IRISi Launch ‘Look Beyond’ for the 16 Days of Action.

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