Transforming health settings to address gender-based violence in Australia

Gender-based violence includes intimate partner violence, sexual violence and other harmful acts directed at people based on their gender. It is common in Australia and causes great ill health, especially for women victims/survivors, with Indigenous women particularly affected. Health services are an opportune place for early intervention for victims/survivors of gender-based violence as they attend frequently. Interventions that are evidence-based and respond to consensus from victim/survivor voices include universal education, screening in antenatal care, first line supportive care, and referral for advocacy and psychological interventions, including mother-child work. Health care staff require training, protocols, scripts, referral pathways, understanding of cultural safety and antiracist practice in service delivery, and leadership support to undertake this sensitive work, including support, if needed, for their own experiences of gender-based violence. Using a trauma-, violence- and gender-informed approach across health systems, taking into account structural inequities, is essential to sustain the gender-based violence work in health services. Gender-based violence experienced by Indigenous women is distinct and of urgent concern as rates rapidly increase. Inequities across the health system are pronounced for Indigenous women.