Valencia General Hospital leads in new measures against gender-based violence
· Announcement of the 1st Award for Applied Research on the Detection of Gender-Based Violence.
The University General Hospital of Valencia and Clece have hosted an awareness raising and social action day aimed at improving health services’ ability to detect gender-based violence using action protocols which enable more effective intervention.
The day was opened by the Council’s Director General of Justice, María Ángels García Vidal, who highlighted that “throughout 2015 a total of 162 cases of gender-based violence were detected by the Valencia General Hospital-Department of Health, while over the first ten months of 2016 the hospital and its health centres had already registered a total of 195 cases of gender-based violence” according to data from the Public Health Directorate General.
With more than 200 attendees, the day included a round table called “Gender-Based Violence Awareness Raising in Health Services”. This focused on the need to standardize and systematize questions during consultations regarding possible abuse suffered by women, through this making health services an effective means of eradicating the problem.
The moderator for the round table was Amparo Esteban, the Department’s Primary Health Care Director, and several specialists in the area also contributed. Alicia Bayarri, the President of the Domestic Violence Section of the Valencia College of Lawyers presented the “figures of shame” through showing statistics relating to the last few years and describing how specialist courts worked with victims.
Isabel Garcia, the Director of Youth, Sport and Equality, presented the Deputation’s work on this issue. Maria Ángeles Celada, a social worker in Primary Health Care at the Department, explained the use of the SIVIO protocol for health professionals and the important role of social workers who form a link to the legal and social resources available to women as psychological support, in addition to information on municipal resources, which is a fundamental issue in these cases.
Eva Planells, the Director of the Valencia-Clece Centre for the Protection of Women, also set out the program developed in collaboration with the Equality and Inclusive Policies Council, which provides different resources, shelters, supervised housing and help finding employment.
Ángela Escribano, specialist in support for cases of gender-based violence of the Public Health Service Directorate General highlighted different measures which the Universal Health Service and Public Health Council have introduced in order to improve protocols for detection and action and which aim to reduce this social scourge.
Award for Applied Research on the Detection of Gender-Based Violence
During the closing session, the collaboration agreement between the Research Foundation of the University General Hospital of Valencia and Clece was announced, launching the 1st Award in Applied Research on the Detection of Gender-Based Violence.
Purificación González, Clece’s Director of Human Resources, explained the company’s commitment to supporting this award. It is contributing 3,000 Euros, and is aimed at achieving the most effective detection of cases of gender-based violence and related health problems. Entries for the award may be submitted from 16th November to 30th December. Information on this is available on the Foundation’s web site.
