The United nations (UN) has established that intimate partner violence(IPV) is a global catastrophe and is not unique to any particular background and occurs across all socioeconomic, religious and cultural settings. A socio-ecological model (SEM) can address the gaps and help to support the understanding the violence and the potential strategies to address IPV. The World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the UN, refers to IPV as “behaviour by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours.”
SEM is broad in scope with multiple levels each overlapping one another. When looking
at IPV it is evident that there is more than one determinant that leads to or increases the risk of IPV. We must keep in mind that just because a person or persons have some of these risk factors this does not necessarily mean that this will lead to IPV. The significance of these levels points towards public health strategies that cover and target a wide range of public health strategies that incorporate wide range of perspectives. A public health approach must take into consideration these factors and how they impact the behaviour of a population or community as an entirety. In the 1947 constitution developed by WHO there is a “wide-ranging approach to thinking of health, which includes physical, mental, and social well-being” (The World Health Organization [WHO], 2020).
Risk Factors
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) IPV is not unique to a particular socioeconomic group, race or ethnicity. However, there are some risk factors that increase the prevalence. In understanding these risk factors or causes this may lead to the development of more effective education, prevention and intervention. Within the public health sector. This in turn will lead to the government creating and improving policy and community's ability to increase awareness and education with the goal of the reduction of IPV.
The CDC has identified the following risk factors for IPV:
Individual Risk Factors - low self-esteem, low income· Relationship Factors,Low academic, achievement/low verbal IQ, young age, aggressive or delinquent behavior as a youth, heavy alcohol and drug use·
Relationship Factors - marital conflict–fights, tension, and other struggles, jealousy, possessiveness, and negative emotion within an intimate relationship, marital instability–divorces or separations, dominance and control of the relationship by one partner over the other, economic stress
Community Factors - poverty and associated factors (for example, overcrowding, high unemployment rates), low social capital–lack of institutions, relationships, and norms that shape a community’s social interactions, poor neighborhood support and cohesion, weak community sanctions against IPV (for example, unwillingness of neighbors to intervene in situations where they witness violence)
Societal Factors - traditional gender norms and gender inequality (for example, the idea women should stay at home, not enter the workforce, and be submissive; men should support the family and make the decisions), cultural norms that support aggression toward others, societal income inequality, weak health, educational, economic, and social policies/laws
To inform its health promotion programs, The Center of Disease Control (CDC) developed a model that consists of four levels of factors that affect health which is grounded in socioecological theory (2007).
The video Moving Forward may assist the understanding about what can protect people from violence and reduce the risk. People with risk factors may be more likely to experience violence. Meanwhile, protective factors can help buffer people from violence. This video will humanize both types of factors by using actors on a stage to show how people can move up or get held back in life, depending on positive or negative impacts. It will ultimately show how increasing what protects people from violence and reducing what puts people at risk for it benefits everyone.
The CDC model enables community-engaged partnerships such as public health to identify a comprehensive list of factors that contribute to poor health and develop a broad approach to health problems that involves actions at many levels to produce and reinforce change. Therefore, there is a need for broader socio-ecological approach to IPV prevention and intervention that recognizes the relationship between male partners' risk factors and their female partners' health outcomes. Such approach can inform prevention and treatment of IPV and enhance partner wellbeing.
The greatest impact on societal change is through the development of healthy public policies that address the root causes of violence and foster a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to prevention and intervention.
The Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA) recognizes that violence prevention is a vast and multidimensional social issue and that a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach, combining the efforts of social services, health, education, employments services, law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, faith communities and all levels of government is necessary. Ontario has begun to build a public policy base to support the integrated response to violence prevention and effective interventions. By supporting the role of government-based agencies, such as the Ontario Women’s Directorate and the Victim Services Unit, the province has the means to foster a multi-faceted approach.
Recommendations
The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) has proposed recommendations which are intended for those responsible for making decisions and creating policy and who are able to introduce change to the approach to violence as a public health issue.
These recommendations consist of the following criteria:
1. Acknowledgement of Violence as a Priority Issue in the Health Sector
2. National Health Goal on Violence
3. New Programs to Address Social and Economic Inequality
4. Healthy, Violence-Free Communities
5. Effective Treatment
6. Education
7. Documentation of the Extent and Effects of Violence
The Government of Canada has formulated tools and practices to help prevent and respond to family violence which incorporates IPV. These resources are to support and assist various providers in the recognition of family violence and how to respond to these situations safely. These online resources target audience are is aimed at not only health care and social service providers but also students.
In 2016 a national framework for collaborative police action on IPV was published by the Canadian association of chiefs of police (CACP) and the Canadian Observatory on the Justice System’s Response to Intimate Partner Violence, University of New Brunswick. This intention of this document is to provide Canadian police services with a concise framework to address IPV. In doing this it will serve to improve collaboration and inform policy to keep and communities and the individuals, families within them safe.
This framework provides a common understanding of IPV that can be by various police agencies in junction with other community partners. The national framework I was collectively formulated by involving various subject matter experts from policing, academia, and community organizations. This document was designed with the intent to support municipal, regional, provincial and national police organizations in formulating and building their own policies to educate and reduce IPV within their communities and provinces.
Understanding, reducing and ultimately preventing is the key to addressing IPV. The approach needs to encourage relationships between strong community and public partnerships. The need to implement strong and durable public policies that focus on strengthening and empowering disadvantaged groups is integral in the reduction of IPV.
Risk and protective factors|intimate partner violence|violence prevention|injury center|cdc. (2020, October 9). https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/intimatepartnerviolence/riskprotectivefactors.html
Violence in society: A public health perspective | canadian public health association. (n.d.). https://www.cpha.ca/violence-society-public-health-perspective Bce 65 intimate partner violence - a silent epidemic - emergency medicine cases. (2018, January 23). Emergency Medicine Cases. https://emergencymedicinecases.com/intimate-partner-violence/
2003-05_pp?ext= [PDF]. (2003). https://opha.on.ca/OPHA/media/Resources/Position-Papers/2003-05_pp.pdf?ext=.pdf
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