Defining feasibility of Primary care strategies to disclose, counsel and provide access to advocacy on family violence.

Background:
Family violence (FV) is a widespread public health problem and serious consequences.
One third of European women suffer from partner violence in their adult lifetime while on fourth of situations of
partner violence children are present. Elderly abuse is present between 10 to 20 % of the population above 60
General practice is often a point of contact for victims but they tend to hesitate or feel ashamed to ask for
assistance. GPs generally lack training in disclosing and supporting FV, feel uncomfortable about asking and
may be hindered by lack of facilities where to refer.
In 2018, WONCA encourages all national colleges and academies to develop policy and implementation
strategies on family violence identification and response for intimate partner violence, child abuse and elder
abuse. This recommendation states it is needed to develop research and define performance and outcome
measures for general practitioners/family doctors and primary care teams in each of our member nations;
implementation strategies for comprehensive family violence care should be enabled and evaluated.
Research questions:
To define needs and concerns of practice teams and analyze possibilities for practice management across
European Countries.
Method:
A Delphi approach modified according to RAND is proposed to develop a consensus using online collection of
data. A steering group will be composed of delegates recruited form EGPRN and EUROPREV members to
constitute a nominal group validating questions and authorising feedback to respondents for each Delphi
round. Country representatives in the project will select a representative sample in each country to allow for
generalisability of conclusions per country and European wise. Collaboration with national colleges is
encouraged. A meeting at EGPRN in October 2018 will further detail the methodology.
A constant comparative methodology using computer software (eg. NVIVO or similar) will be followed
analysing data on each question highlighting similarities and differences between answers thus constructing
an underlying model about concerns and possible solutions proposed.
Points for discussion:
How to constitute a sample per country to allow for generalisability.
What are main focuses for consensus development?