Violence against women: what healthcare professionals see every day and what needs to change

Violence against women leaves deep scars, not only on the victims themselves, but in all layers of society. For Health professionals, it Health a reality they encounter more often than they would like. Two psychiatric nurses, who wish to remain anonymous due to their profession, share what they see in their work. They meet not only women who experience domestic violence, but also the men who perpetrate it.

Stalking, intimate terror, and domestic violence can literally make a woman ill. When a woman ends up in the hospital with suspicious injuries, it is up to the healthcare worker to find out how this happened. As psychiatric nurses, we are passers-by in someone's life. But it is our job to keep our ears and eyes open, not to ignore our gut feelings, and to ask the right questions. 

Many women feel extremely ashamed of their situation and do everything they can to hide the cause of their suffering or injury. We try to see through this and find out what lies beneath certain traumatic symptoms. We start with a broad investigation for each client. We listen between the lines, recognize signals, and thus arrive at a conclusion. If you are in doubt, you already know that you need to ask a colleague for advice. 

We don't just see victims of violence against women. The perpetrators also come to us. When a man says he wants to kill his wife, as a social worker you can't always take action because of professional confidentiality and client privacy. That leaves you, as a social worker, with your back against the wall.

Cases involving children are even more difficult to deal with. In a family where the mother is murdered, the children are left completely without security. They grow up without attachment. And the lives of the mother's parents, colleagues, and friends will never be the same again. In our opinion, much more attention should be paid to the perpetrators and the upbringing of young people. Teach them how to deal with being hurt or rejected. Show them what a healthy image of men and women is, and that a woman is never anyone's property.

The experiences of these psychiatric nurses show that femicide and other forms of violence against women are much more common than we think. The outdoor exhibition FEMICIDE highlights this problem. It shows that this violence is not a coincidence, but a major social problem that we must tackle together.