Nearly half of female healthcare workers have experienced domestic abuse: study

Updated

A landmark investigation into female medical staff in Australia has found nearly half have experienced domestic violence, including one in 10 who had been abused by their partner in the past year alone.

Key points: Healthcare workers over-represented in data

Staff can be re-traumatised helping patients

Survivors use experience to inform their work

New program to help survivor staff being rolled out

The study, published in the BMC Women's Health journal, involved 471 doctors, nurses and health professionals in Victoria and is believed to be the first to examine the link between domestic violence and female medical staff.

It found 45 per cent of those surveyed had experienced domestic violence, and that one in eight had been sexually assaulted by a partner since the age of 16.

Lead researcher Elizabeth McLindon, from the University of Melbourne and the Royal Women's Hospital, said the study was crucial given these are the same staff who deal with patients seeking help for similar abuse.

"Healthcare workers are increasingly required to identify and support women and children who have experienced family violence," Ms McLindon said.

"For some workers, [their own experience] may result in them going the extra mile in supporting survivor patients.

"But for some women, it could also trigger personal trauma to hear stories of other people's experiences of violence."

The study was one of the most comprehensive of its kind in terms of the questions asked and looked at family violence across the lifetime of women.

It found that healthcare workers were well over-represented in the data.

Ms McLindon said Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 2.1 per cent of women in the community have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from their partner in the past year, compared to 4.7 per cent of the female healthcare workers in her study.

"Because of the range of ways that a health professional survivor may respond, it's important that the hospital that they work in or the health service that they work in has different support options for them," she said.

'I've made it my business to help'

Sarah* is a nurse in Victoria and said while the rate of family and partner violence among her colleagues seemed high, it did not shock her.

"I don't know if this is a cliche, but I do feel like people who survive trauma do feel compelled sometimes to then go on and work in helping professions," she said.

"I think that makes sense and that inevitably supports the patients, which is really a healthy outcome."

Her own story is testament to this point.

Sarah was just a teenager when she was sexually assaulted by her uncle.

After moving overseas and putting her life back together, she returned to Melbourne only to experience emotional and physical abuse at the hands of a boyfriend. Then another boyfriend after that.

"Sadly as a 30-something I then found myself in a relationship with a man who was very physically and emotionally abusive," she said.

He too worked in the health sector and what followed was a gruelling time that included Sarah having to get an intervention order.

Now, however, she is happily married with two kids and is using her experience to help others, saying she takes an "entirely different" approach to her job than she otherwise would have.

"It took me 14 years after my sexual assault to go and have a pap test because I was completely traumatised by the idea of it," she said.

"And I think as a result, certainly in my previous work in community health, it made me much more empathetic to women.

"I made it my business to try to engage those women who had gone decades without screenings, knowing that it's a very important screening, but also to just allow women to feel comfortable in my space to be able to get that screening done."

Sarah said speaking to those who had suffered family violence could be confronting for her given her own experience, but she considered herself lucky to have had an understanding manager and workplace to help her deal with it.

Sadly, that hasn't always been the case for others.

'Send in a sick certificate'

Katie** is a social worker in Victoria and knows all-too-well the toll that family violence can take on someone.

Now in her 50s, she has experienced emotional and/or physical abuse at the hands of her father, husband and de facto partner.

"When we look at my husband and de facto that's probably a total of just under 20 years," she said.

"The father of my child continues to perpetrate violence against us.

"The days of physical violence have gone, it's serious psychological harm, neglect of our child, financial abuse, damage to social reputations, our housing."

Katie is still dealing with the fallout and currently has matters before the magistrates and family courts.

She said while her experience makes her a "dual expert" — as both a healthcare professional and survivor of family violence — she also had to be aware of when the work takes its toll.

"The hindering is that I have to be very aware of my triggers and when I notice them to seek debriefing, clinical supervision, my own personal therapy and time away," she said.

"I've learnt to step forward and back, depending on what's happening in my own life."

This has been made easier by a more understanding work culture now that didn't always exist in the "old days", Katie said.

"I worked with one person who said, 'When you turn up to work I expect you to be fit for service. If you're not you should not be here, send in a sick certificate'," she said.

"So that was the old approach, that's what I experienced when I was going through the breakdown of my marriage.

"The new approach is incredible because there is a greater awareness of the profound traumatisation of someone experiencing or recovering from family violence."

And it's not just Katie who is finding this.

In response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence, Victoria has introduced a number of policies to help staff who have suffered, including access to 20 days of family violence leave.

A new program, titled Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence, is being led by the Royal Women's Hospital and rolled out across 89 healthcare services.

It is focused on providing services and training for healthcare workers to support both staff and patients, and Katie has a few ideas to add to the list.

"There's a lot of vicarious traumatisation that goes on for healthcare workers at the frontline, such as hospitals," she said.

"So we do need a lot of support. We need flexible support — debriefing, clinical supervision, maybe even some short-term changes in the duties.

"I think we've become more aware of [family violence] as a society and we're standing up and saying, 'This is morally intolerable'."

* Name has been changed.

** Surname withheld.

Topics: health, domestic-violence, community-and-society, australia

First posted