Transforming health settings to address gender-based violence in Australia.

Gender-based violence includes intimate partner violence, sexual violence and other harmful acts directed at people based on their gender. It is common in Australia and causes great ill health, especially for women victims/survivors, with Indigenous women particularly affected. Health services are an opportune place for early intervention for victims/survivors of gender-based violence as they attend frequently.

Economic evaluation of the Target-D platform to match depression management to severity prognosis in primary care: A within-trial cost-utility analysis.

Background: Target-D, a new person-centred e-health platform matching depression care to symptom severity prognosis (minimal/mild, moderate or severe) has demonstrated greater improvement in depressive symptoms than usual care plus attention control. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of Target-D compared to usual care from a health sector and partial societal perspective across 3-month and 12-month follow-up.

Methods And Findings: A cost-utility analysis was conducted alongside the Target-D randomised controlled trial; which involved 1,868 participants attending 14 general practices in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.

"Walking on Eggshells:" A Qualitative Study of How Friends of Young Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence Perceive Their Role.

Young women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are most likely to turn to their friends for help. Although friends can play a critical role in providing support, there is little research that examines friends' experiences. In this qualitative study, we explored how friends of young women experiencing IPV perceived their role in responding to IPV in the context of friendship.

Advanced training for primary care and general practice nurses: enablers and outcomes of postgraduate education.

The aims of the present study were to understand enablers to participation in postgraduate education for primary care nurses (PCNs), and to explore how postgraduate education has advanced their nursing practice. Cross-sectional questionnaires were mailed out in April 2012 to current and past students undertaking postgraduate studies in primary care nursing at The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Questionnaires were returned by 100 out of 243 nurses (response rate 41%).

The effect of strategies of personal resilience on depression recovery in an Australian cohort: a mixed methods study.

Strategies of personal resilience enable successful adaptation in adversity. Among patients experiencing depression symptoms, we explored which personal resilience strategies they find most helpful and tested the hypothesis that use of these strategies improves depression recovery. We used interview and survey data from the Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes of Depression in Primary Care 2005 cohort of patients experiencing depression symptoms in Victoria, Australia.

Identifying intimate partner violence when screening for health and lifestyle issues among women attending general practice.

Intimate partner violence is a common but under-recognised issue for women attending primary care. There is a lack of studies looking at women's comfort to discuss and openness to getting help for health issues, including fear of a partner, in primary care. Female patients (aged 16-50 years) attending 55 general practitioners (GPs) in Victoria, Australia were mailed a brief survey that screened for health and lifestyle issues, comfort to discuss these issues and intention to get help in primary care.

Effect of type and severity of intimate partner violence on women's health and service use: findings from a primary care trial of women afraid of their partners.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has major affects on women's wellbeing. There has been limited investigation of the association between type and severity of IPV and health outcomes. This article describes socio-demographic characteristics, experiences of abuse, health, safety, and use of services in women enrolled in the Women's Evaluation of Abuse and Violence Care (WEAVE) project.

Beyond symptoms: defining primary care mental health clinical assessment priorities, content and process.

The assessment of undifferentiated psychological distress is a daily aspect of primary care practice. Primary care practitioners' underlying values influence the priorities, process and content of assessment. Currently there is a lack of definition of these values in primary care clinical mental health assessment.

The relationship between abuse and depression.

Very strong links exist between abuse and depression in clinical practice. Abuse and depression often coexist in the victims and perpetrators of abuse. In nursing practice, responding to patients, particularly women, presenting with depression or depressive symptoms requires an understanding of the underlying and perhaps hidden issues of abuse and violence.

Mothers' AdvocateS In the Community (MOSAIC)--non-professional mentor support to reduce intimate partner violence and depression in mothers: a cluster randomised trial in primary care.

Background: Effective interventions to increase safety and wellbeing of mothers experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) are scarce. As much attention is focussed on professional intervention, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of non-professional mentor support in reducing IPV and depression among pregnant and recent mothers experiencing, or at risk of IPV.

Methods: MOSAIC was a cluster randomised trial in 106 primary care (maternal and child health nurse and general practitioner) clinics in Melbourne, Australia.

Cost-Effectiveness of Health Care Interventions to Address Intimate Partner Violence: What Do We Know and What Else Should We Look for?

Intimate partner violence (IPV) creates a substantial burden of disease and significant costs to families, communities, and governments. Building the evidence for effective interventions to reduce violence and its sequelae requires increased use of economic evaluation to inform policy through the analysis of costs and potential savings of interventions. The authors review existing economic evaluations and present case studies of current research from the United Kingdom and Australia to illustrate the strengths and limitations of two approaches to generating economic evidence: economic evaluation alongside randomized controlled trials and economic modeling.

Embedding effective depression care: using theory for primary care organisational and systems change.

Background: Depression and related disorders represent a significant part of general practitioners (GPs) daily work. Implementing the evidence about what works for depression care into routine practice presents a challenge for researchers and service designers. The emerging consensus is that the transfer of efficacious interventions into routine practice is strongly linked to how well the interventions are based upon theory and take into account the contextual factors of the setting into which they are to be transferred.

Women's evaluation of abuse and violence care in general practice: a cluster randomised controlled trial (weave).

Background: Intimate partner abuse (IPA) is a major public health problem with serious implications for the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of women, particularly women of child-bearing age. It is a common, hidden problem in general practice and has been under-researched in this setting. Opportunities for early intervention and support in primary care need to be investigated given the frequency of contact women have with general practice.

MOSAIC (MOthers' Advocates In the Community): protocol and sample description of a cluster randomised trial of mentor mother support to reduce intimate partner violence among pregnant or recent mothers.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent globally, experienced by a significant minority of women in the early childbearing years and is harmful to the mental and physical health of women and children. There are very few studies with rigorous designs which have tested the effectiveness of IPV interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of abused women. Evidence for the separate benefit to victims of social support, advocacy and non-professional mentoring suggested that a combined model may reduce the levels of violence, the associated mental health damage and may increase a woman's health, safety and connection with her children.

Who is identified when screening for depression is undertaken in general practice? Baseline findings from the Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes of Depression in Primary Care (diamond) longitudinal study.

Objectives: To report the baseline characteristics of the Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes of Depression in Primary Care (diamond) study cohort and discuss the implications for depression care in general practice.

Design: A prospective longitudinal study beginning in January 2005.

Participants And Setting: Adult patients with depressive symptoms identified via screening with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D > or = 16) in 30 randomly selected Victorian general practices.

Tackling partner violence in families.

New guidelines extend opportunities for GPs to respond.

Prevalence and associations of partner abuse in women attending general practice: a cross-sectional survey.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and socio-demographic associations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse by a partner or ex-partner for women attending Australian general practices.

Method: In 1996, women attending 20 randomly chosen Brisbane inner south region general practices were screened for a history of partner abuse using a self-report questionnaire. Multivariate analyses were conducted on the data, using presence of abuse or not adjusting for cluster effect to obtain prevalence rate ratios for socio-demographic background data and history of violence in the family of origin.