Are women safe in disaster? Competency in handling gender-basedviolence by public health staff in Galle district

摘要

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a human right issue that is common but under reported. It isnoted that GBV incidence increases in disaster situations. As the public health staff is the key responsiblepersonnel in post-disaster health management, their competencies in managing GBV in crisis situation areextremely important.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in conveniently selected 8 Medical Officer ofHealth (MOH) areas in Galle district. All four categories of public health workers (medical officers, nursingsisters, public health inspectors and midwives) working at selected MOH offices were assessed by a selfadministrated questionnaire regarding knowledge on identification, prevention and management of GBVvictims in disaster situations.Results: Among 200 public health workers, only 23.5% had training on disaster management. Among thetrained MOH staff, only 34.0% were taught on handing GBV in disaster situation. Knowledge on GBV wasaverage in the staff (mean = 72.3, SD = 7.7). There was no significant difference observed in identification,prevention and management of GBV between different employment categories of the MOH staff (allps > 0.05). Knowledge on GBV showed no difference between the trained and untrained staff (t (198,200) = 0.8,p = 0.4) on disaster management.Conclusions and Recommendations: Knowledge on identification, prevention and management of GBVin disaster situations among the public health staff was average, and was not sufficient. Only a minority haveobtained training and all these programmes have not addressed GBV management. Thus, it is recommendedto hold regular training programmes to the public health staff in GBV management in disaster situations.