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On April 28, 2011, 11:00, State Inter-Agency Council on Domestic Violence, supported by the UNFPA/Georgia, conducted a meeting on strengthening healthcare system response to domestic violence.

The meeting aimed at integrating the healthcare system in the National Referral Mechanism for the Victims of Domestic Violence through establishing relevant mechanisms for identification, referral and provision of quality healthcare services to the victims of domestic violence.

The National Referral Mechanism, adopted in 2009,  identifies the healthcare system as an entity that has the initial interaction with the alleged victims of domestic violence. Furthermore, according to the National Referral Mechanism, health care institutions, along with other institutions, are responsible for identifying and preventing the cases of domestic violence, providing primary medical and psychological assistance and social service. However due to lack of institutional mechanisms and technical capacity, this direction has been sufficiently addressed in fight against domestic violence up to this point.

Research and situation assessment, as well as recommendations on mainstreaming domestic violence in the healthcare system, elaborated by the UNFPA/Georgia supported local expert, were presented and discussed at the meeting. “The meeting has revealed an entirely new direction which needs to be urgently addressed in order to ensure effective assistance to the victims of domestic violence. We thank UNFPA/Georgia for its immense contribution in tackling the issue of healthcare system response, as the above mentioned has not been addressed previously by other donor organizations. We need to make sure that this component is further mainstreamed in strategies and programmes on domestic violence,” – Ms. Lali Papiashvili, Chair of the State Inter-Agency on Domestic Violence said.

The outcomes of the meeting will serve as a baseline to a multi-phase initiative entailing formulation of targeted initiatives and supporting the development of guidelines and protocols on domestic violence for the healthcare professionals and conducting relevant trainings for medical personnel.

The initiative was conducted within the framework of the UNFPA project “Combating Gender-Based Violence in the South Caucasus” – a multi-pronged, 3-year initiative co-funded by the Government of Norway contributing to the national response to gender-based violence in Georgia.