The road to freedom: ending violence against women.

Abstract

T he aim of this project was to identify the education needs of rural community-based health workers in Australia on the topic of violence against women and to develop an appropriate education program that would specifically address those educational needs. The three stages of the project included 1) the development of the package, 2) the implementation of the package to rural community health workers, and 3) the evaluation of the effectiveness of the package and feasibility of this education program being adaptable to other rural communities and service providers. The aim of the education package is to enhance the knowledge of rural community-based health workers working with women who are experiencing or have experienced some form of violence, by promoting a rural communitycoordinated response that empowers women to end the violence in their lives. In the literature review and needs assessment, ample evidence existed highlighting the need to improve the responsiveness of health workers to the needs of these women. The health care of people in rural areas has the potential to be enhanced by providing the community-based rural health workers with access to effective educational and training opportunities in order for them to recognize the role they have to play in rural and remote Queensland with regard to access, prevention, identification, and intervention in the broader community. The education package has been successfully piloted with 60 community-based rural health workers and was developed in consultation with communitybased rural health workers and in conjunction with an extensive literature review. This coordinated approach should increase awareness and knowledge and incorporate the health workers’ existing practices at four levels-individual, service/organization, community, and societal-by utilizing existing and the development of further networks. The workers acknowledged that existing networks were not being used to their potential. The package design was based on the five action areas of the Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion’ to ensure that the education and resulting activities were focused broadly to address a c 1997 by The Jacobs Institute wide range of identification, assessment and intervention strategies. of Women’s Health