Attitudes of health care professionals towards violence against women: Are mental health professionals more sensitive?

Objective: Mental health professionals have greater access to information about patients' personal lives compared to other areas of medicine. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the attitudes of mental health professionals and other healthcare professionals towards violence against women. Method: A total of 160 healthcare professionals, including 80 mental health professionals, participated in the study. All participants completed a sociodemographic data form and the Violence Against Women Attitude Scale. Results: The sociodemographic characteristics of the groups were similar (p>0.05). It was found that 63.8% of the participants had experienced violence at some point in their lives, with 45.2% experiencing violence from family members or spouses, 31.7% from their patients or patients' relatives, and 25% experiencing physical violence, 51.3% emotional violence, 3% sexual violence and 4% economic violence. No significant differences were found between the groups. It was also discovered that university graduates, single women, women without children, women living in urban areas, women who were not perpetrators of violence, and women who did not find the penalties adequate were more sensitive to violence against both the body and identity (p<0.05). Furthermore, women who had previously experienced emotional violence have been more sensitive to violence against identity (p=0.019). Discussion: Establishing the attitudes of healthcare professionals, who serve as the primary defense against violence against women, and furnishing in-service training to equip them with the ability to guide victims of violence effectively is a vital action in the struggle against violence.