Abstract
Background Globally, 35% of women have experienced gender-based violence (GBV) which seriously affects all aspects of women’s health. While health sector must play a key role in response, there are many barriers for GBV survivors to access health services, especially in developing countries including Myanmar. Limitations of health sector in provision of quality services to GBV survivors, healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitude, experience and service availability and readiness, should be explored as an initial step for the improvement of health care response to GBV survivors. Methods This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in four purposively selected townships with higher number GBV cases. Face-to-face interviews were done to all health care providers (n=233) from public health facilities using a structured questionnaire. The findings were described as frequency and percentage for categorical data and mean and standard deviation for continuous data. Results Lady Health Visitors and Midwives were mainly involved (88.0%). About two-thirds had heard GBV without probing. Types of violence they mostly described were physical (81.1%) and sexual violence (8.5%). One-third wanted women to be patient to their partners’ violence to maintain family ties. Nearly two-third assumed conflict between husband and wife was not a matter that someone should involve. About 70% had given care to GBV survivors and they provided only injury treatment (76.1%). A quarter of them experienced sexual violence cases, but only 4.9% and 1.2% provided emergency contraception and Sexually Transmitted Infection treatment. Although nearly two third mentioned about psychological counseling in GBV management, 20% provided counseling services to survivors. Absence of standard GBV management guideline, trained and skilled staff for GBV and counseling room at health facilities were issues mostly stated by the respondents. Conclusions Inadequate knowledge, misconceptions and unfavorable attitudes of GBV among health care providers might deter the effectiveness of GBV management at the health sector. In addition, poor management practice together with no standard management guideline, limited skilled staff, inadequate drug supplies and absence of counseling facilities indicated insufficient readiness to provide quality health care responses to GBV surviours in Myanmar.
Sexual violence against men and boys in conflict and forced displacement: implications for the health sector