Screening at Perth Sexual Health Quarters reveals high rate of domestic violence among patients

Doctors have warned of domestic violence victims flying under the radar as a first-of-its-kind screening tool at a Perth sexual health clinic reveals the high percentage of women facing abuse.

Perth Sexual Health Quarters developed a tool to screen patients for intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion, which can include interference with birth control, forcing a person to get pregnant, and controlling the outcome of a pregnancy.

The pilot project revealed 454 female patients out of a total of 2623 had faced domestic violence — 16.3 per cent or 427 women had experienced intimate partner violence and 5.3 per cent or 139 patients faced reproductive coercion.

Of those patients, 91 reported abuse in their current relationship. The tool began in 2018.

Perth Sexual Health Quarters doctor Alison Creagh said the results revealed many patients facing partner abuse were flying under the radar.

“When we did the original project we found that 61 per cent of the people who disclosed abuse were existing patients and we didn’t know about any of them having been exposed to the abuse, so it certainly opened up the topic for discussion and then we could offer help if people wanted it,” she said.

“This kind of really highlighted the importance of having something like this in place at clinics.

“As a health professional, we usually only know about one in three of our patients who’ve experienced it unless we are asking . . . now we can identify more patients and we can help more people.”

Building upon the success of the screening program, SHQ developed a project called Safe to Tell which also involves online training for health workers as well as face-to-face workshops for people working in primary care.

The training was expanded to other Perth metropolitan clinics to teach doctors and other health workers to recognise, respond and refer patients who have experienced intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion.

The success of the first-of-its-kind program within Perth has meant the eLearning package has now been opened to all health workers in Australia.

Dr Creagh called for all health clinics across the country to take up the education program and screening.

“We have had quite a lot of people go through that education program and most people who’ve done it are feeling much more confident and knowledgeable about addressing intimate partner violence in the patients who come to their health centres,” she said.

“Even if they don’t have specific domestic violence backgrounds or skills, often just listening and validating the patient is very helpful and working out where people can be referred if they want some extra help is important.

“It has enormous health impacts on people if they’re exposed to abuse, a range of physical, mental health and financial and all sorts of other impacts and if we know about it, we can help, we can reduce the impacts on that patient.”

Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Minister Sabine Winton applauded SHQ for implementing the program.

“Sexual Health Quarters, which has been delivering services for over 50 years, is just one example of the many community health organisations that are invaluable in our response to family and domestic violence. They are often the first point of contact for victim–survivors seeking help,” she said in Parliament.

“The organisations not only offer safe, trauma-informed and culturally appropriate services, but also play a critical role in preventing violence through education and early intervention.”