Groote Schuur’s ‘one-of-a-kind’ programme helps women affected by GBV

From left: Kristy Evans, executive director at the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust; Dr Sadia Murray, medical services manager at the hospital; Nolubabalo July, social worker; Shamaine Gaxela, social worker; Patiwe Jentile, screening nurse; and Dineo Ntshabeleng, screening nurse. They are all involved in intimate partner violence intervention. Photo: Supplied

By Tamsin Metelerkamp

8 Dec 2024

An intimate partner violence intervention run by the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust has been celebrated at this year’s Centre for Public Service Innovation Awards.

An intimate partner violence (IPV) intervention programme run by the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust (GSHT) in Cape Town has screened 17,500 patients since its launch in mid-2023, taking a proactive approach to identifying and helping people who are facing an unsafe environment in the home.

It’s the first hospital-based intervention of its kind in South Africa, according to Kristy Evans, executive director of the trust. At the recent Centre for Public Service Innovation Awards it received two accolades: the GEMS Health Award and acknowledgement as the first runner-up in the category for Replication and Adaptation of Innovative Solutions. The GEMS award came with R70,000 in additional funding.

“There was an overwhelming cry for something to do with gender-based violence [GBV] [at Groote Schuur Hospital] because so many of our clinicians and nurses were seeing violence coming through the doors of the hospital – and not just through trauma, but through… all the different departments,” Evans said.

“It started in the maternity centre… We piloted a very simple screening tool in the antenatal clinic for the 16 Days of Activism [against GBV] in 2023… We screened about 350 women… and we found that about 10% of the women had actually experienced violence at home in the last year.”

Since then, the programme has expanded significantly, with four nurses and three social workers providing screening services across a number of hospital departments. In September, the team extended the intervention to Mitchells Plain Hospital.

GBV Groote Schuur From left: Kristy Evans, executive director at the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust; Dr Sadia Murray, medical services manager at the hospital; Nolubabalo July, social worker; Shamaine Gaxela, social worker; Patiwe Jentile, screening nurse; and Dineo Ntshabeleng, screening nurse. They are all involved in intimate partner violence intervention. (Photo: Supplied)

Evans said the number of IPV cases varied between different hospital divisions, with the trauma department seeing the highest rate at about 33%.

Dr Sadia Murray, medical services manager at Groote Schuur Hospital, explained that scalability was an important consideration in the design of the intervention programme.

“This is something that should exist in every sphere of society, and not necessarily just in the health sector… This is definitely something that we want to scale at all levels of healthcare, and even beyond,” she said.

Creating safe spaces

The intervention is deceptively simple. Any woman patient who comes through one of the sites where the team is active is approached and screened using a digital survey with seven questions relating to safety in the home. If their responses indicate that they are experiencing violence, they are given a resource pack with safety plans and information on GBV, and offered an opportunity for immediate, on-site counselling. The team also provides women with referrals for further help.

Patiwe Jentile, a screening nurse who has been part of the programme since it started, described her experience with the team as challenging but rewarding.

Read more: Alarming findings of GBV study — will government finally address the crisis of violence?

“It’s hard, not only for the patients but also for us. Today, there was a patient at trauma who I screened. She had bruises everywhere, with her eyes closed. But it gets better when they are able to talk about it,” she said.

The programme has made a huge difference at the hospitals, says Jentile, since it has provided women with a safe space in which to speak out about their experiences. She explained that many people were reluctant to share problems around IPV within their communities because of stigma and the fear that people would perceive them differently.

Tandiswa Ndungane, assistant manager for the trauma and emergency unit at Groote Schuur Hospital, said patients had been very receptive to the IPV intervention.

“I think it’s because of how they are being interviewed. The privacy is the main thing… and also because it’s females who are conducting the programme, mainly. It’s easier for a female to communicate with another female,” she observed.

“This [programme] is one of a kind.”

In addition to the screening services, the programme has upskilled and trained more than 500 healthcare workers between the Groote Schuur and Mitchells Plain hospitals, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to identify IPV early and support survivors effectively.

The IPV intervention has received funding from Standard Bank, while the nonprofit organisation Mosaic has provided training and advisory support. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

Creating safe spaces