Enhancing Practitioner Health’s Readiness to Identify and Respond to Domestic Violence and Abuse: a mixed-methods study to develop a theoretically grounded intervention in primary care

PI Title: Sandi Dheensa

Lead member: Bristol

"Background
NHS Practitioner Health is a primary care service for healthcare professionals with mental health problems and/or addiction. The patients are mostly general practitioners (GPs). This two-year study will help us understand what support survivors of domestic abuse need from Practitioner Health and how ready the service is to provide it.
Our earlier research, and discussions with Practitioner Health staff, have shown that Practitioner Health supports GPs who have experienced domestic abuse. Practitioner Health is their main source of domestic abuse support because, for many reasons, GPs feel unable to seek support from domestic abuse services. But Practitioner Health has no training, policy, or standardised way of working when it comes to domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse affects 2.4 million people in England and Wales and affects healthcare professionals at high rates. It costs the economy £66 billion each year. It damages mental and physical health and is linked to addiction. GPs and other healthcare professionals who have experienced domestic abuse find it hard to work effectively and care for patients. A type of support called ‘advocacy’ and certain types of psychotherapy can improve mental health and safety for domestic abuse survivors. The psychotherapy that Practitioner Health currently offers might be suitable for domestic abuse, but this is uncertain.
Public/patient involvement
Five GPs, who are domestic abuse survivors and former Practitioner Health patients, came up with this research idea. Four will collaborate with the lead researcher on a selection of key research tasks. One will be involved in more tasks and meet monthly with the lead researcher.

Our research objectives
To find out what Practitioner Health staff currently do about domestic abuse and what they could improve, we will look at:
• existing support options outside of Practitioner Health for healthcare professionals who have experienced domestic abuse,
• policies or processes in Practitioner Health that might be relevant to domestic abuse, and
• what information Practitioner Health staff document about patients who have experienced domestic abuse.
We will also carry out:
• a survey with Practitioner Health staff and
• focus groups with staff.
We will bring the results from these activities together and share them with a group of domestic abuse experts and survivors of domestic abuse, including the five GPs mentioned above. Through three Zoom workshops, we will decide together which type of training and support could be of most benefit to survivors if Practitioner Health provided it.

Sharing our findings
We will write a summary of findings for our study’s website, academic articles, and reports for organisations; co-present at conferences with survivors where possible; and explore other options for sharing, e.g., podcasts."

Award Amount: £110,0.15