Violence, Health and Society
Lead Research Organisation:
City St George’s, University of London
Department Name: School of Social Sciences
Abstract
Violence causes harms to health, especially long-lasting harms to mental health. Mental health is significantly impacted by violence. These harms to mental health can be more long-lasting than the immediate harms to physical health. They have consequences that reverberate through a person's life impacting on their functioning in society, with still further consequences. Reducing such 'upstream' determinants of poor mental health would significantly improve the health of the population. Investigating the effectiveness of potential interventions to reduce exposure to violence is central to the proposal.
Within the field of violence, we have special interest in domestic and sexual violence because these are significant causes of inequalities in mental health. We address how to mainstream these issues across multiple sectors rather than seeing them as only of specialised concern. Our Consortium aims to mainstream violence prevention at higher and earlier stages than before.
Multiple institutions are relevant to preventing violence. They include not only health services, but also law enforcement (most violence is a crime), social services (especially important for child protection), specialised services (Third Sector organisations that help victim/survivors of violence), and governmental bodies concerned with law, policy and data quality. The connections between violence and mental ill health are complicated since they are mediated by many social systems (institutions). Identifying these connections (causal pathways) would aid the development of more effective interventions.
The data needed to assess the effectiveness of interventions is currently weak. This is partly because each specialised academic discipline and profession has a different way of measuring violence, which makes cooperation across these differences difficult. Not only do we need harmonised core metrics for cross-sector cost-benefit comparisons, we also need to adapt and extend our metrics to capture the new forms of technology-facilitated abuse. The Consortium aims to improve the measurement framework and data availability to aid the cross-sector evaluation of interventions. It seeks to develop cooperation between academics and professionals as to how this is best done. After reaching agreement on how to proceed, we would develop the data needed to assess interventions. This involves developing cooperation between data providers, agreements on common categories, and making data more available. This involves care and attention to issues of data protection and the development of bespoke agreements on data sharing that respect the communities that generate data.
We would unlock the potential in multiple data sources with increased cooperation over a shared measurement framework. These data sets include major national surveys such as the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (national survey of mental health that includes information on experience of violence), and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (national survey that includes changes over time in violence and their consequences). They include administrative data sets from professions and practices, including the police, health and social services, specialised services and technology companies. We would locate data analysts of multiple data sets in the same space to facilitate technical cooperation between usually separate disciplines.
With the newly improved data, we would use academic, statistical, and practitioner knowledge and the resources of the Consortium to assess key interventions. These are interventions at the level of institutions and systems. We leave to others the issue of addressing the treatment of trauma in individuals already affected by violence. Our focus is the 'prevention' of violence in the population.
The aim is to reduce the harm to health, especially mental health, by identifying the most effective interventions to reduce violence in the population.
Within the field of violence, we have special interest in domestic and sexual violence because these are significant causes of inequalities in mental health. We address how to mainstream these issues across multiple sectors rather than seeing them as only of specialised concern. Our Consortium aims to mainstream violence prevention at higher and earlier stages than before.
Multiple institutions are relevant to preventing violence. They include not only health services, but also law enforcement (most violence is a crime), social services (especially important for child protection), specialised services (Third Sector organisations that help victim/survivors of violence), and governmental bodies concerned with law, policy and data quality. The connections between violence and mental ill health are complicated since they are mediated by many social systems (institutions). Identifying these connections (causal pathways) would aid the development of more effective interventions.
The data needed to assess the effectiveness of interventions is currently weak. This is partly because each specialised academic discipline and profession has a different way of measuring violence, which makes cooperation across these differences difficult. Not only do we need harmonised core metrics for cross-sector cost-benefit comparisons, we also need to adapt and extend our metrics to capture the new forms of technology-facilitated abuse. The Consortium aims to improve the measurement framework and data availability to aid the cross-sector evaluation of interventions. It seeks to develop cooperation between academics and professionals as to how this is best done. After reaching agreement on how to proceed, we would develop the data needed to assess interventions. This involves developing cooperation between data providers, agreements on common categories, and making data more available. This involves care and attention to issues of data protection and the development of bespoke agreements on data sharing that respect the communities that generate data.
We would unlock the potential in multiple data sources with increased cooperation over a shared measurement framework. These data sets include major national surveys such as the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (national survey of mental health that includes information on experience of violence), and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (national survey that includes changes over time in violence and their consequences). They include administrative data sets from professions and practices, including the police, health and social services, specialised services and technology companies. We would locate data analysts of multiple data sets in the same space to facilitate technical cooperation between usually separate disciplines.
With the newly improved data, we would use academic, statistical, and practitioner knowledge and the resources of the Consortium to assess key interventions. These are interventions at the level of institutions and systems. We leave to others the issue of addressing the treatment of trauma in individuals already affected by violence. Our focus is the 'prevention' of violence in the population.
The aim is to reduce the harm to health, especially mental health, by identifying the most effective interventions to reduce violence in the population.
Technical Summary
Violence causes harms to health, especially long-lasting harms to mental health. Preventing 'upstream' determinants of poor mental health would significantly improve the health of the population. We have special interest in domestic and sexual violence because these are significant causes of inequalities in mental health. We intend to investigate the effectiveness of potential interventions to reduce the violence that harms mental health.
The focus is on the prevention of violence rather than the mitigation of its harms by the treatment of individuals. We will use complex systems analysis as part of building a theory of change. Multiple systems are relevant: law enforcement (most violence is a crime), social services (especially for child protection), specialised services (Third Sector organisations that help victim/survivors of violence), and governmental bodies (law, policy and data quality). The interactions between these institutions (systems) is rarely simple and direct; generating perverse outcomes and 'wicked problems'.
The data needed to evaluate interventions is currently weak. This is partly because each specialised academic discipline and profession has a different way of measuring violence. The Consortium aims to improve the measurement framework and data availability and to develop harmonised core metrics for cross-sector cost-benefit comparisons. Data sources include: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, administrative data from police, health, social services, specialised services and technology companies.
With the newly improved data, we would evaluate interventions that are at the level of institutions and systems and have potential for prevention.
This grant is funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) which is administered by the Medical Research Council on behalf of the UKPRP's 12 funding partners: British Heart Foundation; Cancer Research UK; Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Economic and Social Research Council; Health and Social Care Research and Development Division, Welsh Government; Health and Social Care Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland; Medical Research Council; Natural Environment Research Council; National Institute for Health Research; The Health Foundation; The Wellcome Trust.
The focus is on the prevention of violence rather than the mitigation of its harms by the treatment of individuals. We will use complex systems analysis as part of building a theory of change. Multiple systems are relevant: law enforcement (most violence is a crime), social services (especially for child protection), specialised services (Third Sector organisations that help victim/survivors of violence), and governmental bodies (law, policy and data quality). The interactions between these institutions (systems) is rarely simple and direct; generating perverse outcomes and 'wicked problems'.
The data needed to evaluate interventions is currently weak. This is partly because each specialised academic discipline and profession has a different way of measuring violence. The Consortium aims to improve the measurement framework and data availability and to develop harmonised core metrics for cross-sector cost-benefit comparisons. Data sources include: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, administrative data from police, health, social services, specialised services and technology companies.
With the newly improved data, we would evaluate interventions that are at the level of institutions and systems and have potential for prevention.
This grant is funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) which is administered by the Medical Research Council on behalf of the UKPRP's 12 funding partners: British Heart Foundation; Cancer Research UK; Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Economic and Social Research Council; Health and Social Care Research and Development Division, Welsh Government; Health and Social Care Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland; Medical Research Council; Natural Environment Research Council; National Institute for Health Research; The Health Foundation; The Wellcome Trust.
Publications
Rogers J
(2021)
Catatonia: demographic, clinical and laboratory associations
in Psychological Medicine
Bunce A
(2024)
Challenges of using specialist domestic and sexual violence and abuse service data to inform policy and practice on violence reduction in the UK
in Journal of Gender-Based Violence
Li L
(2023)
Characterizing the Differences in Descriptions of Violence on Reddit During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
in Journal of interpersonal violence
Mechelli A
(2024)
Climate change and mental health: overview of UK policy and regulatory frameworks to stimulate and inform future research and practice
in The British Journal of Psychiatry
Jayasinghe L
(2020)
Clinician-recalled quoted speech in electronic health records and risk of suicide attempt: a case-crossover study.
in BMJ open
Blackman G
(2021)
Clozapine Response in Schizophrenia and Hematological Changes.
in Journal of clinical psychopharmacology
Mascio A
(2021)
Cognitive Impairments in Schizophrenia: A Study in a Large Clinical Sample Using Natural Language Processing.
in Frontiers in digital health
Bendayan R
(2021)
Cognitive Trajectories in Comorbid Dementia With Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder: The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (SLaM BRC) Case Register
in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Carson LE
(2020)
Cohort profile: the eLIXIR Partnership-a maternity-child data linkage for life course research in South London, UK.
in BMJ open
Adisa O
(2023)
Community mental health through a complex systems lens
in The Lancet Public Health
Walby S
(2022)
Costing the long-term health harms of trafficking: Why a gender-neutral approach discounts the future of women.
in Frontiers in sociology
Impara E
(2022)
COVID-19 ethnic inequalities in mental health and multimorbidities: protocol for the COVEIMM study.
in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
Brunckhorst O
(2021)
Depression, anxiety, and suicidality in patients with prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.
in Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases
Bland M
(2022)
Describing Patterns of Known Domestic Abuse Among Different Ethnic Groups.
in Frontiers in psychology
Bunce A
(2024)
Determinants of Referral Outcomes for Victim-Survivors Accessing Specialist Sexual Violence and Abuse Support Services.
in Journal of child sexual abuse
Segev A
(2024)
Developing a validated methodology for identifying clozapine treatment periods in electronic health records.
in BMC psychiatry
Chaturvedi J
(2023)
Development of a Corpus Annotated With Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records: Natural Language Processing Approach.
in JMIR formative research
Chaturvedi J
(2023)
Development of a Knowledge Graph Embeddings Model for Pain.
in AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium
Wickersham A
(2021)
Educational attainment trajectories among children and adolescents with depression, and the role of sociodemographic characteristics: longitudinal data-linkage study.
in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
Sommerlad A
(2021)
Effect of trazodone on cognitive decline in people with dementia: Cohort study using UK routinely collected data.
in International journal of geriatric psychiatry
Laurell AAS
(2024)
Estimating demand for potential disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease in the UK.
in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
Wickersham A
(2021)
Estimating the impact of child and early adolescent depression on subsequent educational attainment: secondary analysis of an existing data linkage.
in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences
Stewart R
(2020)
Extent of disease at first cancer presentation and previous anxiety and depressive symptoms: the HUNT study.
in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
Emsley E
(2023)
General practice as a place to receive help for domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study in England and Wales.
in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
Ive J
(2020)
Generation and evaluation of artificial mental health records for Natural Language Processing.
in NPJ digital medicine
Cross L
(2020)
Guidance for researchers wanting to link NHS data using non-consent approaches: a thematic analysis of feedback from the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group A thematic analysis of feedback from the Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group
in International Journal of Population Data Science
Stewart
(2022)
How to Do Research: and How to Be a Researcher
Tanczer L
(2021)
I Feel Like We're Really Behind the Game': Perspectives of the United Kingdom's Intimate Partner Violence Support Sector on the Rise of Technology-Facilitated Abuse
in SSRN Electronic Journal
Dutta R
(2023)
Identifying features of risk periods for suicide attempts using document frequency and language use in electronic health records.
in Frontiers in psychiatry
Chaturvedi J
(2024)
Identifying Mentions of Pain in Mental Health Records Text: A Natural Language Processing Approach.
in Studies in health technology and informatics
Kung B
(2021)
Identifying subtypes of depression in clinician-annotated text: a retrospective cohort study
in Scientific Reports
Kung B
(2021)
Identifying subtypes of depression in clinician-annotated text: a retrospective cohort study.
in Scientific reports
Wang YH
(2023)
Impact of pre-existing mental health disorders on the receipt of guideline recommended cancer treatments: A systematic review.
in Psycho-oncology
Wang T
(2020)
Implementation of a Real-Time Psychosis Risk Detection and Alerting System Based on Electronic Health Records using CogStack.
in Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE
Rogowska M
(2023)
Implications of Adverse Outcomes Associated with Antipsychotics in Older Patients with Dementia: A 2011-2022 Update.
in Drugs & aging
| Description | Improving analytical skills within a third-sector Domestic Violence and Abuse specialist service - Women's Aid Federation: improving data management and skills in regression analysis in R |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Improved capacity of the organisation to support survivors of domestic violence and abuse. |
| Description | Violence, Health and Society: VISION |
| Amount | £7,128,297 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/V049879/1 |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Description | Improvement of capacity of understanding administrative data: influencing data practices of Imkaan and the Angelou-Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Multiple online discussions have been held between the Research, Evaluation and Development team at Imkaan and members of the Angelou-Centre and researchers at the Violence and Society centre to understand how to improve the understanding and use of data routinely collected by the North Consortium or Imkaan more widely in their provision of specialist support to women who have experienced domestic violence and abuse, in the by-and-for context. The engagement impacted practice of data collection at Angelou-Centre, with contributions to their new case management system, but more importantly influenced their understanding of what types of analyses are possible with the data they currently hold. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Improvement of capacity of understanding administrative data: influencing data practices of Women's Aid Federation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Multiple online discussions have been held between the Research and Policy team at Women's Aid Federation and researchers at the Violence and Society centre to understand how to improve the understanding and use of data routinely collected by WA in their provision of specialist support to women who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. The engagement impacted practice of data collection at WA, but more importantly influenced their understanding of what types of analyses are possible with the data they currently hold. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |