Optimizing the Health Sector Response to Gender-based Violence | Center for Public Health and Human Rights

Lead: Michele Decker

Additional CPHHR Faculty: Nancy Glass, Andrea Wirtz

Our team is at the forefront of implementation science on crafting, implementing, and evaluating the health sector response to gender-based violence through brief clinic and community-based interventions, and training of providers.

Our Coursera course Confronting Gender-based Violence (GBV) introduces global epidemiology of GBV, health outcomes, seminal research, policy and ethical guidelines, and clinical best practices for GBV prevention, support and management. In collaboration with Center for Clinical Global Health Education

In collaboration with Planned Parenthood of Maryland and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, our team led the Maryland evaluation of Project Connect: A Coordinated Public Health Initiative to Prevent and Respond to Violence Against Women, with support from the Office on Women’s Health, US Dept. HHS.

High levels of gender-based violence (GBV) persist among conflict-affected populations and within humanitarian settings and are paralleled by under-reporting and low service utilization. Working with partners from UNHCR and NGOs, we conducted qualitative research in Colombia, Ethiopia and Uganda to develop and validate a brief screening tool that can be employed in refugee settings, first with women and girls and then with men and boys. The tool has since expanded in use, including a feasibility assessment in the Dadaab refugee camps of Kenya, in practice among Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and among the general population in Somalia.

Publications:

Decker MR¹, Frattaroli S, McCaw B, Coker AL, Miller E, Sharps P, Lane WG, Mandal M, Hirsch K, Strobino DM, Bennett WL, Campbell J, Gielen A. Transforming the healthcare response to intimate partner violence and taking best practices to scale. J Womens Health (Larchmt).2012 Dec;21(12):1222-9. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2012.4058.
Wirtz AL, Pham K, Glass N, Lochkart S, Kidane5 T, Cuspoca D, Rubenstein LS, Singh S, Vu A, Gender-based Violence in Conflict and Displacement: Qualitative Findings from Displaced Women in Colombia, Conflict and Health 2014, 8:10.
Vu A, Adam A, Wirtz A, Pham K, Rubenstein L, Glass N, Beyrer C, Singh S. The Prevalence of Sexual Violence among Female Refugees in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. PLoS Curr. 2014 Mar 18;6.
Wirtz AL, Glass N, Pham K, Aberra A, Rubenstein LS, Singh S, Vu A. Development of a Screening Tool to Identify Female Survivors of Gender-based Violence in a Humanitarian Setting: Qualitative Evidence from Research among Refugees in Ethiopia, Conflict and Health 2013:Jun 12;7(1):13.