Adjust your domestic violence radar: nursing and COVID-19

This blog by Professor Caroline Bradbury-Jones (@jones_bradbury) kicks off our week-long give attention to violence and harassment. Caroline runs a research program on the University of Birmingham entitled Risk of abuse and violence which undertakes research and scientific work on national and international scale. Caroline was also a part of the team together with her colleagues at the corporate HELM University of Nottingham AND University of 21 Health Sciences the group created free access reusable educational facility to assist us understand gender-based violence and our role as health care employees.

Watching the news over the past weeks and months report the each day death toll from Covid-19 has been absolutely devastating. Entire nations have gone into lockdown to slow the transmission of the virus. The world is waiting for a vaccine, and until we get it, social distancing and isolation will likely proceed, not less than in some form. In the UK, we have now been told this might extend into 2021. While some countries have began to chill out their movement restriction laws, there are fears and uncertainties about further outbreaks, so emerging from lockdown shall be an extended, initial process.

Most people find social distancing and self-isolation difficult, but for some people the measures taken to combat Covid-19 have proven disastrous. Solving the issue shouldn’t have a greater negative impact than the issue itself, but unfortunately isolation has a major impact on domestic violence rates. Shelter, one in every of the UK’s leading domestic abuse organizations, has reported that calls to its National Domestic Abuse Helpline have increased significantly during lockdown, with a median increase in calls of around 50% and over 400% in visits to website because the lockdown began. Refuge indicate that stay-at-home measures are a key a part of the Government’s strategy to avoid wasting lives through the pandemic, but it is vital to contemplate the implications of isolation when home isn’t a secure place. As Refuge (2020) puts it, “for many women, isolating themselves from an abusive partner is a matter of life and death – in a very different way.” Increased rates of domestic violence are since the house is a spot where power dynamics will be distorted and undermined by perpetrators of violence. Strict isolation measures go directly into the hands of perpetrators of violence through tactics of coercion, control and surveillance. Moreover, they cut off escape routes, searches for help, and ways of coping with victim-survivors. Violence and harassment can literally occur “behind closed doors” and out of sight of others (Bradbury-Jones and Isham 2020).

What does all this mean for nurses and nurse practitioners? In a broad sense, it is vital to think critically about idealized representations of home and family and understand that for many individuals, home isn’t a refuge. In many settings, nurses play a key role in identifying and responding to domestic violence. The current situation requires “hyperawareness” amongst nurses to fine-tune their domestic violence radar. This applies not only to patients and customers, but in addition to colleagues, family and friends. It doesn’t require specialized skills, but moderately awareness that domestic violence may turn into an issue in an individual’s life. Nurses will be assured that if done sensitively and safely, most individuals won’t feel offended by asking if the whole lot is OK at home and, most significantly, by asking someone who Is experiences of domestic violence, it will possibly be like throwing them a lifeline.

Once we have now a vaccine for Covid-19, we are able to eradicate it, but there is no such thing as a vaccine for domestic violence. However, as a part of a public health approach, we are able to still do loads to deal with this. Primary prevention programs operate on the population level, while tertiary prevention is obtainable by services supporting victims of domestic violence. An essential a part of secondary prevention is nurse identification and response to domestic violence, and through the Covid-19 pandemic, a fine-tuned domestic violence radar is important.

Bradbury-Jones, C. and Isham, L. (2020) The pandemic paradox: the implications of COVID-19 for domestic violence, Journal of Clinical NursingDOI: 10.1111/jocn.15296

Shelter (2020) The shelter’s response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report on domestic violence during Covid-19. Available: https://www.refuge.org.uk/refuge-response-to-home-affairs-select-committee-report-on-domestic-abuse-during-covid-19/

Free 24-hour national (UK) domestic violence helpline: 0808 2000 247

Open access resources on gender-based violence: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen/rlos/safeguarding/gbv/#

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