The experience of health and welfare workers in identifying and responding to domestic abuse among military personnel in
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(2020) 20:947
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
The experience of health and welfare workers in identifying and responding to domestic abuse among military personnel in the UK Katherine Sparrow1, Filipa Alves-Costa1,2* , Ana Alves2, Neil Greenberg3, Louise M. Howard4, Nicola T. Fear3 and Deirdre MacManus1
Abstract Background: Awareness of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) as a problem among military personnel (serving and veterans) has grown in recent years, and there is a need for research to inform improvements in the identification of and response to DVA in this population. This study aimed to explore the experience of health and welfare professionals in identifying and responding to DVA among the UK military population (serving personnel and veterans). Methods: Thirty-five semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with health and welfare staff who work with serving UK military personnel and veterans. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Three superordinate themes were identified: i) patterns of DVA observed by health and welfare workers (perceived gender differences in DVA experiences and role of mental health and alcohol); (ii) barriers to identification of and response to DVA (attitudinal/knowledge-based barriers and practical barriers), and iii) resource issues (training needs and access to services). Participants discussed how factors such as a culture of hypermasculinity, under-reporting of DVA, the perception of DVA as a “private matter” among military personnel, and lack of knowledge and awareness of emotional abuse and coercive controlling behaviour as abuse constitute barriers to identification and management of DVA. Healthcare providers highlighted the need for more integrated working between civilian and military services, to increase access to support and provide effective care to both victims and perpetrators. Furthermore, healthcare and welfare staff reflected on their training needs in the screening and management of DVA to improve practice. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science Department, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, 16 De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK 2 Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitt
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