Box 9: Key recommendations and examples of good practice

Healthcare professionals should:

• • Be able to define domestic violence.

• • Work to policies and guidelines which would assist practitioners in offering a more consistent service to those experiencing domestic violence (see Chapter One for references).

• • Have an understanding of their own professional roles and responsibilities and how issues such as domestic violence impact on them.

• • Be aware of the constraints and potential within the roles and responsibilities of ‘other’ medical and non-medical health staff.

• • Avoid differentiating between those who experience violence and themselves.

• • Be aware that ‘blaming victims for staying’ is a common but unhelpful reaction.

• • Avoid assuming that ‘cycle of abuse’ and ‘dysfunctional family’ theories are adequate explanations for violence.

• • Locate their practice within a domestic violence discourse. Healthcare professionals’ interactions are perceived in relation to wider experiences of abuse, which they cannot control. Ensure their practice does not perpetuate abusive power dynamics.

• • Consider the impact of psychosomatic and non-physical injuries in all encounters with women experiencing domestic violence.

• • Recognise the existence of the complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• • Be aware that some psychological complaints can be confused with complex PTSD.

• • Have an understanding of how medical discourse locates women who consistently engage with para-suicidal activity. Be aware of the reasons why domestic violence may impact on this behaviour.

• • Consider para-suicidal activity in relation to the biomedical/holistic dichotomy within health interactions. Women may engage in this behaviour because they feel their experiences are not validated within an holistic framework.

• • Examine their previous practice to identify the types of treatments they use routinely with possible domestic violence cases.

• • Have adequate knowledge to effectively provide such treatments. This is particularly relevant in relation to giving information, advice, and offering broad-based counselling or a ‘sympathetic ear’.

• • Ensure that women remain in control of treatments and do not feel further disempowered or isolated.

• • Offer a range of treatments, which may include doing nothing but leaving a patient's options to return open.

• • Name domestic violence.