Community-Based Workers’ Health and Wellness: Supporting Women Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

An individual’s working conditions are a key social determinant of health. Community-based workers (CWs) provide vital support to survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV); they are directly and repeatedly involved in serving those who experience harmful acts of violence, which may subsequently affect health. By using a salutogenic orientation, this qualitative descriptive inquiry explores the health and wellness of CWs employed in non-profit settings who support women survivors of IPV in the Niagara Region, Ontario. A total of 19 CWs (n = 19) from four organizations participated in individual semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis generated five interconnected themes: (1) mental processing and alternations includes how CWs internalized their work from processing women’s trauma which interfered with their way of being; (2) unmanageable structural challenges considers the challenges that were not within the CWs’ control which influenced their ability to view their work as manageable and pushed their health and wellness toward the ill end of the health continuum; (3) women empowering women encapsulates how women empowerment was shared between female CWs who supported women survivors, and how CWs’ work enhanced health and wellness by providing them with a sense of meaning and inspiration to self-reflect and grow from their personal struggles; (4) unique ways of coping describes CWs’ personal ways of coping which assisted them in dealing with stressful work-related experiences; and (5) recommendations for system improvements which captures CWs’ recommendations for structural changes to promote health and wellness. The study contributes knowledge to the IPV field as the findings demonstrated several ways in which supporting survivors influenced the health and wellness of CWs in non-profit organizations in the Canadian context. The findings have implications for nurses to be leadersin raising public awareness, advocacy, and promoting better health outcomes for CWs. They also have implications for strategies involving intersectoral collaboration as a means to promote community awareness about CWs and the services they facilitate, and to support the needs of the IPV CW workforce.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. Applied Health Sciences

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Applied Health Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Applied Health Sciences Program

Grantor

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Lundy, Tara

• intimate partner violence
• community-based worker
• health
• wellness
• qualitative

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10464/18156

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/18156