Promoting Health Equity to End Gender-Based Violence: Innovations in Research, Practice and Advocacy

Abstract

From the 13th to 15th of November 2024, The Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International (NNVAWI) will come together for its landmark 25th conference in Phuket, Thailand. NNVAWI is a strong international organisation of researchers, nurses, midwives and other healthcare providers committed to creating a world free from violence. From our first gathering of a handful of nurses in Massachusetts nearly four decades ago (1985), NNVAWI has grown into a global network of more than 400 members and friends, several of whom have gathered at nearly every conference since the network was founded. As we celebrate the 25th gathering of NNVAWI members, guests and people with lived experience of gender-based violence (GBV), we also celebrate the remarkable determination, staunchness and hard work that has sustained and grown our Network and its accompanying conference.

NNVAWI is deeply committed to health equity and addressing the legacies of colonialism inherent in many high-income country visa policies that bar otherwise deserving scientists from the opportunity to network, learn and present their work. Accordingly, the NNVAWI Board of Directors and conference sub-committee are delighted that this 25th conference also marks the first time our conference will be held in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC). The decision to host our conference in Phuket, Thailand was motivated by our increasing commitment to supporting LMIC researchers who are often less resourced in the important work they are undertaking. Holding our meeting in Southeast Asia also offers an opportunity to showcase the work of network members in a region that faces high levels of GBV (World Health Organization [WHO] 2021), lending support to the already robust local awareness, research and advocacy efforts. The result of this decision has been outstanding, with this year's meeting receiving a record number of abstract submissions, and more than 160 presentations taking place over 3 days. The authors hail from five continents, representing over 30 countries, and a good number of these reside in LMICs. Importantly, we will also be hearing from a large contingent of graduate students and early-career researchers—the future of violence prevention and our organisation.

Our 25th conference theme is Promoting Health Equity to End Gender-Based Violence: Innovations in Research, Practice, & Advocacy. Our call for abstracts prompted particularly strong responses of impactful and innovative work in seven important topic areas, specifically: Violence training, education and mentoring for health care professionals; Help-seeking and gender-based violence; the Intergenerational and longitudinal effects of violence; Measurement development and validation; Violence, pregnancy and maternity care and Recovery, resilience and strengths.

Appropriate and adequate training of healthcare professionals—who are often the first, and sometimes the only formal service providers violence victim–survivors encounter—is essential for prevention and effective response to gender-based violence (WHO 2013). Our 2024 conference program offers many opportunities to discuss the progress of training and education, with exploring the feasibility of a training program for healthcare providers regarding screening intimate partner violence and substance abuse; Jack et al.'s (2024) abstract on educating nurses on trauma and violence-informed care: an e-learning curriculum. Other interesting topics include training healthcare providers to address IPV using the WHO LIVES model/curriculum; and access, quality and mentoring: a nurse-led telemedicine program providing specialty care for rural and remote victims of violence, committed to mentoring healthcare providers (Wegener, 2024).

It is critically important in violence prevention science and healthcare response to violence to address issues of accessibility and barriers victim–survivors experience when they attempt to seek help or support, particularly those who are underserved and marginalised (WHO 2013). At this years' conference, we will be hearing about the barriers and facilitators of help-seeking behaviours of British South Asian Women who experienced domestic violence; while Udmuangpia and Colleagues (2024) will provide us with a qualitative understanding of help-seeking among intimate partner violence survivors in Thailand. Delegates will also hear about tailoring an evidence-based intervention for Black women survivors in the US with depression help-seeking in faith-based organisations; and be fortunate enough to learn about access, utilisation and barriers to utilisation of Maternal and Child Health in Rural India (Sabri et al., 2024). The technology perspectives and health-seeking behaviours in Chinese immigrant women with negative sexual experiences will also be a highlight of the conference (Manley & Li, 2024).

NNVAWI members have long been leaders in research that advances the understanding of the intergenerational and long-term impact of violence on health outcomes. Gartland and Colleagues (2024) will share their findings from an Australian pregnancy cohort study exploring intimate partner violence in the first 10 years of life and child outcomes; and delegates will hear about the epigenetic associations with prenatal exposure to genocidal rape in Rwanda (Uwizeye et al., 2024a). The trajectories of sexual and gender-based violence exposure among young men and women in peri-urban Cape Town will be presented by Hartmann and Colleagues (2024), while the effects of violence exposure on neurobehavioral development during early adolescence will be explored by Jagasia et al. (2024). Finally, Uwizeye and team (2024b) will address setting priorities for the research with and for Rwandans prenatally exposed to genocide.

As is typical for the NNVAWI conference, there was a strong response from violence researchers on innovative measurement, development, validation and evaluation of tools, resources and interventions, will be providing an overview of the construction of indicators and implications for intimate partner violence measurement. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn about developing assessments to personalise gender-based violence survivor care and evaluate where survivors are in their healing journey (Sinko et al., 2024). Using the woman abuse screening tool to screen for intimate partner violence and analysis: its factors in women with breast and/or cervical cancer will be delivered by Li and team (2024). The conference will also include a presentation on exploring the effects of gender-based violence on breast cancer outcomes in Canada and developing a novel trauma- and violence-informed care tool to advance health equity for patients with a history of gender-based violence (Davidson et al., 2024). Touching on matters relevant to the country in which the conference is taking place are presenting on the predictors of re-assault differing by age for Thai women experiencing gender-based violence.

Excitingly, one of the five symposia this year will be led by Tarzia and Colleagues (2024) who are aiming to enhance delegates' understanding of the context and dynamics of violence and demonstrate how these conceptual insights are used to enhance measurement. Focusing on reproductive coercion measures, LaGrappe et al. (2024) will present whether those with lived experience and professional experts perceive current measures capture the experiences of all. Manandhar and team (2024) are going to present to delegates on developing and validating the Nepalese Abuse Assessment Screen (N-AAS) for identifying domestic violence among pregnant women in Nepal. Keeling et al. (2024) will be discussing a novel tool for early screening of domestic violence and abuse, while will share their findings from a multi-country evaluation of the HERA intervention (Healthcare Responding to Domestic Violence and Abuse). Delegates will have the opportunity to hear about the psychometric properties evaluation of the Arabic version of Sullivan's quality of life scale among women experiencing intimate partner violence (Jaradat et al., 2024). An anticipated crowd-pleaser is Wathen and Colleagues' presentation on the development and evaluation of an Equity-Promoting, Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care Curriculum for the gender-based violence service sector.

NNVAWI has a long history of producing evidence in the maternal care space, and this year's conference is no exception, will offer us a South Asian perspective when presenting results from their cross-sectional study in Nepal on pregnancy intention and domestic violence. Lifetime violence and perinatal sleep quality is a topic on which little previous research has been done, yet we are sure it will draw a crowd considering the strong link between sleep and health outcomes (Agarwal, 2024) are sharing their findings on Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) and their devastating consequences for mothers, the family unit and the future of our children. Although the conference this year is being held in Thailand, we are lucky to have representation from the other side of the world; one interesting presentation coming is the consequences of a history of violence on women's pregnancy and childbirth in the Nordic countries (Finnbogadóttir et al., 2024). Research coming out of Australia will focus on domestic and family violence and associated maternal and perinatal Outcomes (Baird et al., 2024). Co-designed interventions were again a prominent feature of the conference abstracts received, and work with women in Nepal on co-designing a safety-promoting intervention in antenatal care will be of interest to many. Lucea et al.'s work examining the prevalence of pregnant and postpartum homicides and suicides in the U.S., the frequency of IPV involvement and the number of health care, legal and criminal justice systems interactions before death among a national sample of women will shine a light on the number of missed opportunities for system engagement of at-risk women are presenting on the prevalence of intimate partner violence during Pregnancy and Associated Health Outcomes among Thai Women; this presentation will be complemented by Hegadoren et al's (2024) paper similarly addressing intimate partner violence among pregnant Thai women. The importance of primary healthcare screening and detection of pregnant women exposed to partner violence will be addressed within at the conference also.

Another strong theme of NNVAWI members' work is a focus on strengths, resilience and recovery. Debnam et al. (2024) will share findings from their study exploring cultural assets as facilitators to young Black women's romantic relationship development will present pathways to adolescent psychological well-being in families living in fragile, low-resource settings. Delegates will hear about cultural influences on trauma recovery after gender-based violence: model comparisons between individualism and collectivism countries (Kita et al., 2024), while Garinger and Colleagues (2024) will present on exploring nursing advocacy for women in the context of violence. Finally, the conference will shine a spotlight on the trauma researchers themselves may experience, with Orr et al.'s (2024) paper on building researcher resilience in emotionally demanding research work and sustaining an international community of practice. Fiolet and Colleagues (2024) will present on a similar, topic when discussing their ‘Preventing and REsponding to Secondary TraumA in Researchers addressing Sensitive issue’ study undertaken with Australian researchers.

Our global network of researchers, healthcare providers, survivors and advocates is an interdisciplinary group of motivated individuals committed to seeing an end to violence against women and children. We are excited to celebrate our 25th NNVAWI Conference, and to be doing this in a southeast Asian country with a strong profile regarding gender-based violence research and advocacy. The conference is being co-hosted by the Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Khon Kaen and the Praboromarajchanok Institute. The Conference Planning Committee is co-chaired by Dr. Renee Fiolet, Dr. Nicholas Methany, Dr. Tipparat Udmuangpia and Dr. Tina Bloom, and comprised of NNVAWI members Dr. Chuka Emezue, Dr. Leesa Hooker, Dr. Chye, Toole-Antsey, Dr. Desiree La Grappe and Dr. Yang Li. The Committee acknowledges the generous sponsorship received from the Deakin Network Against Gendered Violence. We look forward to seeing delegates in November!

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.