SAFE study: eHealth interventions for women exposed to intimate partner violence "If I'd had something like SAFE at the time, maybe I would've left him sooner."

Nowadays we are used to doing a lot online, from searching for information to connecting with other people. eHealth offers for patient health are increasing and these are not limited to disease management. In fact, online options are also an important source of professional help, for example in the field of domestic violence and abuse (DVA).

The team behind the SAFE research project (safewomen.nl) is the first team in Europe to scientifically develop and evaluate an online intervention for survivors of intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA), a type of DVA that affects at least 1 in 4 women in the Netherlands.

Of course, this would not have been possible without participatory research: the team conducted an interview study among women survivors of IPVA and professionals in the field of DVA. They wanted to know: what is necessary to support these women online and encourage them in their help seeking journey? Initially, it was thought that two groups were recruited: survivors and professionals, but while doing the analysis a third group was discovered that acted as a bridge between them and that provided unique input for the SAFE intervention: survivor-professionals (SPs). SPs have both personal experience with and professional expertise on IPVA. While survivors and SPs highlighted safety, the professionals specifically highlighted the importance of acknowledgement. Acknowledgement of the survivor´s experience is essential in their help seeking journey and often under-addressed. The SPs were also highlighted the importance of considering multiple life domains when designing an intervention – IPVA affects many areas of a person´s life and this needs to be considered.

This study informed the SAFE intervention, that is available online since April 2019. The intervention is now partially translated into English and Arabic as well, after the study among Arabic speaking women in the Netherlands. The results of the SAFE evaluation studies will be published in 2023.

The SAFE team was led by Sabine Oertelt-Prigione from the Unit Gender of the Department of Primary and Community Care and primarily conducted by Nicole van Gelder, who will soon defend her PhD thesis about the SAFE intervention. The results of this study were first published online in August 2021, in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence: van Gelder et al., 2021, Essential Features of eHealth Interventions for Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence.

Related publications from this team can be found here.