New rural health research involving UCRH student Anna-Katerina Hicks and researchers Dr Jodie Bailie and Dr Natalie Edmiston is helping build understanding of how emergency departments can embed better care for people experiencing family and domestic violence and abuse.
Emergency departments can be a critical point of contact for people experiencing violence and abuse. Research shows women affected by intimate partner violence attend emergency departments at three times the rate of other women, making the way services identify and respond to family and domestic violence particularly important.
The research was undertaken by Anna-Katerina as part of her Doctor of Medicine (MD), with Dr Bailey and Dr Edmiston among the co-authors.
Their paper, Emergency Department Implementation of Care Models for Individuals Experiencing Family and Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Systematic Scoping Review, has been published in Trauma, Violence, Abuse.
The review examined 25 studies published between 1995 and 2025 that reported on the implementation of family and domestic violence models of care in emergency departments.
Rather than looking only at what care was provided, the researchers examined what helped new approaches become part of everyday emergency department practice.
Common themes included the value of dedicated family and domestic violence practitioners, care models developed with emergency department teams, building staff confidence and sharing individual patient stories to demonstrate the impact of the work.
The review also highlighted the importance of communication between services, including knowing what happened after a patient was referred for further support.
The researchers found there is still a need for further research that considers both comprehensive models of care and how they are implemented in practice.
The findings add to understanding of how health services can move beyond introducing new approaches towards making effective family and domestic violence care a routine and sustainable part of emergency department practice.
