Intimate partner violence is one of the most common forms of violence against women and includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and controlling behaviors by an intimate partner.
Violence against women is everyone’s business.
At this crucial stage in our developing nation, the health and social development sectors are able to step up to their role as advocates for the vulnerable in society, and set norms for addressing these problems. Doing nothing perpetuates the violence.
What can be done?
IPV prevention and responding holistically to survivors are key to providing comprehensive care in our context. This requires that for each point of entry for women, standard operating procedures are established, implemented and audited. All actors in the health and social development system need to have a defined role to play, embedded in their job descriptions.
Healthcare and social service providers at all levels of care are well placed to identify IPV and offer appropriate
management. Their role is to:
• Ask about IPV whenever it is suspected or in high risk women e.g. antenatal, mental health and HIV care
• Provide detailed, signed and dated documentation
• Be supportive and affirming without judgment or pressure
• Ensure comprehensive clinical care, including STI screening and treatment, and contraception
• Develop a safety plan with the woman
• Provide appropriate referrals (shelters, mental health nurse, social service provider, specialist NGOs,
emergency care, legal assistance, job skills programme)
• Provide active follow-up and liaison
National, provincial and district health management can provide the enabling environment for this to take place.
Their role is to:
• Ensure IPV protocols and standard operating procedures exist and are well communicated at each facility
• Ensure a broad staff component are adequately trained for IPV work
• Ensure staff are adequately supervised and emotionally supported for IPV work
• Ensure staff such as mental health, HIV and emergency care providers have indicators relating to IPV included
in their performance agreements
• Ensure indicators for IPV are included in routine monitoring
• Develop detailed action plans to protect staff from threat or harm
Intersectoral work needs to be promoted and developed to address IPV adequately.
The roles of the Department of Health and the Victim Support Services within the Department of Social Development
include:
• Developing and maintaining working intersectional relationships with each other, SAPS, Justice, Crime Prevention and Security, and the NGO sector, from strategic to local level
• Working with communities using participatory approaches, to identify community strengths, mobilize
communities and increase their capacity for responding meaningfully to IPV
What is IPV in South Africa?
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a silent public health epidemic in South Africa (SA). Interpersonal violence in SA is the second highest burden of disease after HIV/AIDS, and for women 62% of the former is ascribed to IPV. IPV presents in many ways, cutting across all medical disciplines.
How common is intimate partner violence in South Africa?
South Africa has one of the highest rates of intimate partner or domestic violence in the world with 50% of all murders of women being by their intimate partners at a rate of 8.8 per 100,000 population
How can the courts contribute towards dealing with IPV South Africa?
Courts remain limited in their ability to solve the problem of domestic violence. As such, the court’s role remains as it always has been – to use sentencing policy to denounce domestic violence in clear terms and to deter the offender and other persons from committing acts of domestic violence.
What can be done to stop gender-based violence in South Africa?
What can be done to prevent GBV?
high school learners in classroom sessions and after-school workshops;
high school teachers and staff through skills building workshops; and.
caregivers (e.g. parents) of young teenagers through weekend workshops.