PEOPLE WHO USE VIOLENCE (NPRF 24.11)
Early intervention in health settings for men using intimate partner violence
2 years
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a public health epidemic. Evidence shows that men use violence more frequently and severely than women.
It is increasingly acknowledged that efforts to end IPV must target men using IPV against female and male partners. Most existing interventions for men are not tailored specifically to community and health settings.
Research aims
The Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence (the Centre) delivers training programs nationally through its Readiness Program to build capacity within primary care to better support all members of the family where IPV is occurring.
The Centre has developed I-ENGAGE, a model for engaging men who use violence through primary care, as well as the web-based tool BETTER MAN which aims to increase men’s early engagement with help-seeking to reduce their use of IPV.
This project aims to assess whether, when delivered as an early intervention by trained general practitioners (GPs), the I-ENGAGE model and BETTER MAN tool:
- are acceptable and feasible approaches to deliver primary care
- increase the knowledge, skills and attitudes of GPs towards engaging men who use IPV
- increase the engagement of men who use IPV, including their:
- help-seeking activities (including engaging with men’s referral services, men’s behaviour change programs and other counselling services)
- identification of their behaviour as IPV
- readiness to change regarding their abusive behaviours
Methods
The project employs a mixed methods design and will consist of the following overlapping components.
Part A: Acceptability and feasibility
- Interviews with 20 participating GPs to examine their experiences identifying and responding to men who use IPV in the primary care setting.
Part B: Knowledge, skills and attitudes
- Two surveys with GPs, with one conducted prior to training in the I-ENGAGE model and BETTER MAN tool, and one conducted after the GPs have consulted with and offered support to men who use IPV. The surveys will examine the knowledge, skills and attitudes of GPs towards engaging men who use IPV.
Part C: Men’s help-seeking behaviour
Two online surveys with men who use IPV.
- The baseline survey will ask about the consultation with the GP and how men felt about being asked about their relationship and the help that was offered. We will also measure socio-demographic items and their help-seeking behaviour and intentions to seek help.
- The 3-month survey will measure:
- the percentage of men who engage in help-seeking behaviours
- men’s awareness of behaviours as abusive
- men’s self-rating of intention to contact the Men’s Referral Service or other relationship counselling service (“intention”) and rating of confidence in ability to contact the Men’s Referral Service or other relationship counselling service (“self efficacy”).
Significance
This project will provide insights into a potential new way of assisting men who use IPV, with a focus on early interventions for men in the community or in health settings as opposed to reactive interventions for men already in the justice system.
This project will indicate whether this early intervention approach is acceptable to GPs and to men who use IPV, and whether it has appropriate proof of concept to inform future testing and implementation on a national and international scale.
Ultimately, this project has real potential to improve the mental and physical health of men who use IPV; to reduce injury, disability, illness and death in their partners; to reduce stress, trauma and developmental problems in children; and to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of IPV.
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Researchers
Project lead
Dr Minerva Kyei-Onanjiri, Research Fellow, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne
Research team
Professor Kelsey Hegarty, Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence
Libby Dai, GP and researcher with Safer Families
Dr May Su, General Practitioner
Dr Mohajer Hameed, Senior Research Fellow (Family Therapy), Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University
Budget
$182,644 (excluding GST)
This project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.