#SiteOfTheMonth: Bridgend, one more area in Wales where women can seek support from their local General Practice

Over the last few years, the IRIS Programme has considerably expanded across Wales. In 2021, one more Welsh area started delivering the initiative to their local General Practice teams: since February, 11 practices in Bridgend have been trained and are now ready to identify and refer women who are affected by Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA).

The IRIS Programme has been implemented in partnership with Safer Merthyr Tydfil (SMT). Vanesa Ghigi, the Advocate Educator working across Bridgend, explains why the initiative is so powerful: “In my experience, women that have never contacted the police or a local DVA Agency due to fear, guilt, shame, might feel they can share their experiences safely with their GP, many of whom would only do so if prompted through enquiry by the GP”. Read the full interview with Vanesa below!

How did you first get the IRIS programme to Bridgend?

SMT has been running the IRIS programme in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taff since 2015 and we have received a total of 845 referrals from both of these areas. Julie Beck, Deputy CEO for SMT, had been in discussion with colleagues at Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board with regards to the expansion of the IRIS programme into Bridgend and we officially started delivering training and supporting patients in February 2021.

How has the IRIS programme helped you to improve the response to domestic violence and abuse in Bridgend?

I have worked in various roles supporting women affected by DVA and I believe IRIS is able to support women that wouldn’t have sought help through the usual channels. In my experience, women that have never contacted the police or a local DVA Agency due to fear, guilt, shame, might feel they can share their experiences safely with their GP, many of whom would only do so if prompted through enquiry by the GP. I believe that by reaching out to survivors through GPs and practice clinicians, IRIS is able to help a distinct cohort of women that wouldn’t otherwise have received any support.

How was your experience in delivering the IRIS programme until now?

We have been working hard to get IRIS embedded in all General Practices in Bridgend. Our main focus for this first year has been to train all practices and to get GPs familiar with the IRIS programme and start referring patients. We have received some great feedback from all trained practices, most of whom have referred patients for support. It has been more challenging delivering training online. Face to face training can be more interactive and engaging and also allows me to visit the practices and catch up with clinicians and staff whilst there to offer support. However, there are definitely pros and cons for both online and face to face training for myself and clinicians.

What are the most challenging and satisfactory aspects of delivering the IRIS programme for you?

One of the best parts of working in the IRIS programme is to see the number of referrals increase as we train more and more practices and clinicians. It is clear that clinicians are asking their patients about DVA and offering support, which makes a huge difference to the safety and wellbeing of survivors and children. It is really satisfying to see that this is happening as a result of the training we offer and the partnership work between clinicians and IRIS. The direct work we do with women can be very challenging but is also extremely rewarding. Some of the biggest challenges we are currently facing are around engaging with some General Practices that are small and short of staff, which means they do not have the time or resources to commit to IRIS at this stage. We have plans in place to offer support with the hope that Bridgend practices will be fully IRIS aware very soon.

*In collaboration with Clinical Lead for Bridgend, Dr Laura Wass.

Site of the Month: Bridgend

Launch date: February 2021.

Specialist Partner organisation: Safer Merthyr Tydfil.

Practices trained: 11 practices trained to date.

Women referred by year: 19 referrals received since February 21.

Do you want to see your site on our website? Then, email Geisa D’avo, IRISi’s comms and marketing manager, at geisa.davo@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.