Barriers to health care professionals in detecting more domestic violence

Introduction. Identification of victims of domestic violence among the women using the healthcare is not sufficient. Objective. The aim of this study is to identify the barriers that prevent health care professionals in identifying domestic violence more often. Method. A questionnaire was distributed to health workers in the Health center of Kraljevo, by e-mail. Results. The study comprised 136 health care workers, 73.3% female and 26.7% male. 70.6% were doctors and 29.4% technicians. The mean age of respondents was 38.93 ± 7.7, (range 31-50), with the average 11.36 ± 7.74 years of service. The social barriers were significantly more present among female health workers (p=0.037). The most frequent answer is the lack of guidelines. This answer is significantly in correlation with professional qualification (p=0.002). The prominent institutional barriers are overwork (53.7%), lack of information about the procedures (significantly present among doctors, p=0.003), and the fear for their own safety (46.3%). Barriers associated to the health care workers themselves have the least number of responses, with limited time as the most important, followed by lack of training (44.9%) and lack of knowledge, that is significantly related to gender (p=0.002) and to qualifications (p=0.009). Women expect more authority in their work, p=0.035. Among the 4 groups of barriers, the majority of answers is related to the victims of violence themselves (43.9%), statistically more significant among doctors, p=0.004, predominantly responding that victims hide the violent behavior of their partners (65.4%). Conclusion. Provide continuous education about domestic violence and evaluation of knowledge, encourage the victims to trust the health system, raise awareness about the judgment of violence, and skillfully inform the women of resources in the community