Responding to Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Use: Sex-, Gender-, and Equity-Based Approaches

The Learning Network, based in Ontario, Canada, is a knowledge mobilization initiative that bridges the gap between current gender-based violence (GBV) research, practice-based knowledge, and lived experience to enhance the capacity of the GBV sector and movement.

For more information and to register, please visit the event page.

In this Special Event, Dr. Lorraine Greaves, Founding Executive Director and Senior Investigator at the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health will explore the critical importance of approaches that simultaneously address IPV and Substance Use, rooted in trauma- and violence-informed (TVI) care, and informed by sex-, gender-, and equity-based analyses (SGBA+). Drawing on evidence from Canadian and international interventions and decades of work at the intersection of substance use, trauma, and gender, Dr. Greaves will discuss how different substances, and different patterns of substance use, social perceptions, stigma, and intersecting concerns shape the lives of survivors.

This session will offer practical resources from the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and provide insights for GBV and allied service providers. Approaches such as motivational interviewing, reflecting on stigma, and starting conversations about various substances that promote safety, choice, empowerment, and self-determination will be discussed.

Learning Objectives

By participating in this Special Event, participants will enhance their ability to:

• Recognize why approaches that simultaneously address IPV and substance use, rooted in trauma- and violence-informed (TVI) care and informed by sex-, gender-, and equity-based analyses (SGBA+), are essential, and why such integrated responses remain uncommon across service settings.
• Consider the differential impacts of various substances including nicotine, alcohol, opioids, meth, and cannabis impact those affected by IPV and impact service responses.
• Identify some practical strategies for GBV and allied service providers to reduce stigma, open supportive conversations, utilize motivational interviewing principles, and apply trauma- and violence-informed practices that uphold safety, empowerment, and self-determination.

This webinar will be recorded and available at Learning Network's Special Event page.

For all queries, please contact the organiser at: gbvln@uwo.ca.