Joint Training Workshop

A joint training workshop was conducted on February 1, 2021, as part of the counsellors’ training and the preparation for launching the STOP intervention. The purpose of the workshop was to provide training as well as an inspirational session to the counsellors (the Danish midwives and Spanish psychologist) who are responsible for carrying out the counselling sessions with women exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV).

The keynote speakers invited to the workshop were professors from Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing who are experts in the field of implementing online interventions for women exposed to IPV. They spoke about:

• The target group for the STOP-project, and on how to work with the women in their own homes and about the content and implementation of a safety planning app.
• Routine assessment/inquiry (screening), and how this creates a good opportunity for disclosure, seeking help early and a place for those who are not ready for drastic actions and the shelter. At the same time, the challenge with routine assessment is often the implementation. They underlined the importance of how the counsellors introduce the screening, (e.g., by introducing the theme as part of standard procedure: “Because domestic violence happens to so many women, we are asking ALL the women…”.)

They also offered practical advice on how a safety planning app can be implemented (e.g., if the woman cannot use her own phone because of a controlling partner she might be able to borrow a phone from a friend or a family member.)

The workshop provided an excellent opportunity to learn from researchers and scientists who have implemented similar interventions. The keynote presentations confirmed that what we have developed so far in the STOP-project makes sense, and the challenges we have anticipated seem reasonable. The speakers also offered insight into how they have measured the effect of their interventions, which gave us input regarding how to best measure the effect of the STOP-intervention. Finally, the joint training workshop was an opportunity to create a network within the field of IPV, and the foundation for possible future collaboration, in case we are to have a STOP-project 2.0.

As the deliverable is confidential, it is not made available here.