Evaluation of the Improving Health System Responses to Domestic and Family Violence Primary Health Network Pilots
February 2023
General practitioners (GPs) have historically been the first professional contact for survivors of any abuse and violence.
Government and professional recognition of the complexity of these survivor’s needs has acted as a catalyst for integrated responses.
The Australian Government has recently funded the expansion of the Recognise, Respond, and Refer (RRR) Program, to enhance the capacity and capability of primary care practitioners (including GPs) to better care for people living with family and domestic violence, and improve integration of the primary health care system with the family and domestic violence service response system.
Research aim/s
ANROWS partnered with the Sax Institute to evaluate the RRR expansion, known as the Improving Health System Responses to Family and Domestic Violence PHN Pilot initiatives. The evaluation aimed to understand if, why and how the pilot initiatives worked, and assessed the impact on primary health care worker capacity and integration with the family and domestic violence service response system.
Methods
The evaluation employed a co-design approach to plan both implementation and outcome evaluations, working with six Primary Health Networks across three states. The implementation evaluation used a mixed-methods approach, drawing on a range of quantitative sources (e.g. participant and referral data) and qualitative sources (e.g. interviews/small group discussions with GPs and other staff). The outcome evaluation used a range of assessment tools to identify improvements in primary health care practitioners’ knowledge and practice, as well as changes at the system level such as partner collaboration and system integration.
Significance
The evaluation helped build the evidence base to inform future policy directions and program planning in Primary Health Networks to ensure systems and individuals better recognise, respond and refer people impacted by DFV.
Researchers
Project leads
Ms Anne Redman (Sax Institute), Director of the Evaluate program
Dr Shiho Rose (Sax Institute), Evaluation Fellow
Research team
Dr Peter Ninnes (ANROWS), Senior Advisor to the evaluation
Professor Michael Frommer (Sax Institute)
Dr Sallie Newell (Sax Institute), Evaluation Fellow
Dr Alice Knight (Sax Institute), Evaluation Fellow
Ms Carmel Crook (Sax Institute), Senior Qualitative Researcher
Dr Smriti Nepal (Sax Institute), Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Budget
This project is funded by Australian Department of Health.