GBV Response EU

What is RESPONSE?

RESPONSE – Multi-agency response for reporting of GBV in maternal health services – is a two-year project, who started with the financial support of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme (2014-2020) of the European Union , that aims to increase maternal health teams response to gender-based violence (GBV). Capacity building activities are being implemented in partner countries to support disclosure of events, referral to specialised services and safety planning for women accessing maternal health services. The activities take place in the following five EU countries: Austria, Germany, France, Romania (project coordinator) and Spain; with the support of GBV researchers and policy experts at the University of Bristol, UK, for the project evaluation.

Our work?

This project builds on the Daphne supported IMPLEMENT Project (2014-2016) in which 4 of the RESPONSE partners participated in (Austria, France, Germany, Romania, and UK-trainers). We will use the IMPLEMENT Training Manual developed to target GBV identification in emergency departments and adapt it to train maternal health teams to respond to GBV through their numerous contacts with women accessing maternal health services.

Why our work is important?

Research shows that women survivors of GBV use healthcare services more than women who are not victims. As well, healthcare providers are professionals whom women survivors of GBV would most trust with their disclosure of abuse. Therefore, routine perinatal care visits offer a crucial opportunity for identification, safety planning, referral and reporting of gender-based violence in pregnant women who are at high risk during this vulnerable period. Unfortunately, these skills are severely lacking in the training of medical, nursing and midwifery students and staff who work in maternal health clinics.