Double Wahala: Help Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence among Women in Resource Constrained Settings

Abstract

In resource constrained settings, the high prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women occurs in the context of limited access to social support systems and formal sources of help. This limits women’s access to help. Help seeking is a critical response to IPV that helps prevent and reduce re-occurrence or limit its negative consequences. Healthcare centres have been recognized as important sources of help in IPV. However, barriers to an effective healthcare response to IPV occur at various levels. Therefore, the studies in this thesis explored the latent classes of help seeking behaviour among women experiencing IPV in Nigeria, synthesized evidence on the perceptions and experiences of women seeking help for IPV from healthcare centres in sub-Saharan Africa and qualitatively described community considerations for women’s help seeking for IPV from healthcare centres in a community in Nigeria. Across the three studies, it was evident that more women sought help for IPV from informal sources compared to healthcare centres. This was corroborated by the qualitative evidence synthesis showing that of four themes described, three were barriers while only one theme reflected the hope that women have that they can get help for IPV in healthcare centres. The qualitative descriptive study built on these themes by describing community considerations for increasing and improving healthcare response to IPV. These considerations were better community engagement and awareness, better working conditions for healthcare professionals, and financial aid for women experiencing IPV. The studies in this thesis show that a lot more needs to be done to improve formal sources, specifically healthcare centres, as sources of help for women experiencing IPV. A community participatory approach is necessary to improve healthcare response to IPV without neglecting the strengthening of informal sources of help in IPV.