Success in identifying women affected by domestic abuse through IRIS — a specialist domestic violence and abuse (DVA) training, support and referral programme for general practices — is growing. However, men and children and young people are rarely identified and referred for specialist support. Recognising this gap, a study by researchers from Bristol’s Centre for Academic Primary Care has looked at the feasibility of expanding the scope of support to include them.
IRIS has been positively evaluated in a randomised controlled trial. Maintained by IRISi, the programme is now running in around 50 areas across the UK. While continuing to address the needs of women, the IRIS+ intervention, developed and tested by Bristol researchers in collaboration with IRISi and DVA agencies, extends support to men experiencing or perpetrating DVA and children and young people living with or experiencing DVA in their relationships.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study found that IRIS+ successfully enabled the identification and direct referral of 44 children and young people (15% of total 300 referrals) and 29 men (mostly survivors, 10% of total referrals).
- ‘Feasibility of a reconfigured domestic violence and abuse training and support intervention responding to affected women, men, children and young people through primary care’ by Eszter Szilassy et al.in BMC Primary Care [open access]
- ‘Primary care system-level training and support programme for the secondary prevention of domestic violence and abuse: a cost-effectiveness feasibility model‘ by Madeleine Cochrane et al. in BMJ Open [open access]