“What Do We Do Now?”: Recommendations to Combat Professionals’ Public Stigma Against Women Who Experience Intimate Partner Violence

TL;DR

This study provides recommendations to reduce professionals' public stigma against women who experience intimate partner violence, aiming to improve care and support for survivors.

Contribution

The study introduces a comprehensive framework of actions to combat stigma at both societal and professional levels, including individual and structural interventions.

Findings

Professionals recommend promoting gender equality and providing specialized resources to combat stigma.

Structural actions include training, community workspaces, and evaluating psychosocial programs for survivors.

Individual actions involve self-reflection and adopting a survivor-centered intervention model.

Abstract

Professionals’ public stigma toward intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) survivors represents a significant barrier to the recovery from violence. The aim was to analyze the actions that professionals working in various sectors involved in integrated care consider relevant to preventing professionals’ stigma. Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with 25 professionals working in Spain. A thematic analysis was employed. The recommendations suggested by the participants were divided into two main themes: actions to prevent stigma in society and actions to prevent stigma among professionals. The latter were further divided into individual-level actions and structural-level actions. Among the actions to prevent stigma in society, emphasis was placed on promoting gender equality in a cross-cutting manner. At the structural level, some of the suggestions were to provide institutions with resources and protocols to provide IPVAW-specialized services and to ensure competent professionals through effective training and community workspaces to facilitate group discussions and supervision, among other actions. Additionally, evaluating the real effectiveness of psychosocial intervention programs targeting survivors was suggested. At the individual level, professionals should engage in self-reflection regarding their own stigma and refer to other colleagues when necessary. A survivor-centered intervention model was also advocated, which seeks to empower women and is based on the strengths of survivors and healthy relationships. This also implied that social intervention professionals should address IPVAW before considering the removal of minors. This study offers relevant recommendations to combat the stigma at all levels, contributing to high-quality professional care for survivors.