The Ministry of Health, along with its partners the Pan American Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO), through the Spotlight Initiative, has launched the first-of-its-kind National Clinical and Policy Guidelines on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Sexual Violence in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Spotlight Initiative is a UN global initiative aimed at eliminating violence against women and girls which is supported by the European Union and other partners.
The launch was held at the Brix, Coblentz Avenue, Port of Spain on March 8.
Bound in hard cover, the 97-page policy says its aim is to “steer the work of healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, social workers and support staff), health and programme managers in various service settings including health centres, district health facilities, hospitals, maternal and child health clinics, family planning, HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) and mental health settings.”
Tobago House of Assembly (THA) secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith B Yisrael, Spotlight Initiative ambassador Sharon Clarke-Rowley, PAHO/WHO representative Dr Erica Wheeler, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and European Union ambassador Peter Cavendish were among those at the event.
Deyalsingh said, “I think it is a point of reflection in our nation’s history, as it unveils, for the first time, a national clinical guideline policy on intimate-partner violence and sexual violence against women.
“An even more fitting tribute to women is that this launch is occurring today, International Women’s Day.”
The guidelines are intended to improve the capacity of TT’s healthcare providers to respond, holistically, to the physical, mental and social needs of survivors and ensure follow-up care, Deyalsingh said.
He assured B Yisrael that the guidelines would not gather dust, as there was a recent history of developing policy and implementing it. She earlier shared reservations about this issue.
Deyalsingh also addressed the historical bias against women.
“Who is responsible for birth control in the family? Do men take an active role in determining the family size? Do men take an active role in protecting their partners from unwanted pregnancies and STDs?
"The answer is no. We put that onus on the woman,” he said.
He added that even in the field of medicine there was bias against women, citing the story of Australian TV personality Bindi Irwin and her fight with endometriosis.
The bias against women and IPV was not limited to physical spaces but also now extended to the virtual world, with cyberbullying, doxxing (publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent) and where men – because they feel aggrieved a relationship has gone wrong – release intimate content about a partner, he said.
“Women can find no ease against these ravages,” Deyalsingh said.
It was not only a local problem but also a global one he said, citing the “emotional violence” female gymnasts had exper
