EU project “WHOSEFVA” has been successful in supporting elderly female victims of abuse
One year after the launch and Kick Off Meeting of the WHOSEFVA Project in Greece, the 3rd Partner meeting was held in Vienna, Austria from 1 -3 March 2018 to share and discuss key results and outputs of the project to date. This two-year project, co-funded by the European Commission under the Daphne programme, aims to increase the capacity of domestic violence organizations to better represent the interests and voices of older female victims of violence in healthcare and healthcare policy, thus helping to better comply with the desires of the EU. The WHOSEFVA project is currently being implemented in the following six partner countries: Austria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia and the UK.
Violence against older people, especially violence against older women, occurs in all social classes and cultures and is a widespread problem in Europe. The extent of the violence is serious and affected women are experiencing many facets of violence in the family, public and institutional spheres, yet we have not talked much about it. “With WHOSEFVA, we were once again able to bring the subject of violence against older women out of the taboo,” according to Maria Rösslhumer, project partner in Austria.
Since the start of WHOSEVFA, a total of 14 Mutual Learning Workshops have taken place in the partner countries. In the process, partners have been able to inform, support and prepare 280 doctors, social workers and experts from victim protection institutions on the topic of violence against older women. The contents of the workshops were very extensive, with the aim to mutually exchange knowledge and experiences and develop a clear attitude against all forms of violence.
In addition, WHOSEFVA has had the opportunity to speak with 67 women and men in the context of focus groups about their experiences of violence in old age. The results of both activities are very helpful in articulating concrete policy demands to end violence against older women - both at national and European level.
A central and common EU-level WHOSEFVA requirement is the legal implementation of training for professionals - especially in the health care sector and on the issue of gender based violence. The theories of abuse in the Istanbul Convention recommend in Article 15.1: “Parties shall provide or strengthen appropriate training for the relevant professionals dealing with victims or perpetrators of all acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, on the prevention and detection of such violence, equality between women and men, the needs and rights of victims, as well as on how to prevent secondary victimisation."
One key component of the training of professionals is the WHOSEFVA Training Manual which has recently been published, and aims to provide an overall training programme on elder abuse and violence against older women, with special consideration to the needs and concerns of older women. This Training Manual will become available on the WHOSEFVA project website by the summer of 2018, and is translated into all national partner languages (English, Estonian, German, Greek, Finnish, and Latvian). Throughout the duration of the project, WHOSEFVA will develop replicable guidelines on how to implement intervention measures for better prevention and identification of violence against older women in health and social care settings.
Key contact information of WHOSEFVA partners:
Women’s Support and Information Centre, Estonia, Pille Tsopp-Pagan: pille.tsopp-pagan@naistetugi.ee
University of Tartu, Estonia, Hector Pagan: hector@ut.ee
Sirkka Perttu, Finland: slperttu@gmail.com
Kilcooley Women’s Centre, UK, Roberta Gray: roberta@kilcooleywomenscentre.co.uk
Union of Women’s Associations of Heraklion Prefecture, Greece, Nicholas Spetsidis, projects@kakopoiisi.gr
MARTA Centre, Latvia, Dita Lāce: dita@marta.lv
Austrian Women’s Shelter Network, Austria, Maria Rösslhumer: maria.roesslhumer@aoef.at
Women against Violence Europe, Europe, Kelly Blank: kelly.blank@wave-network.org
WHOSEFVA Project Website: www.whosefva-gbv.eu
"Co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union under Grant Agreement no JUST/2015/RDAP/AG/VICT/9320”
Forwarded by:
Heidi Mõttus
Marketing and Communications Assistant
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
University of Tartu
heidi.mottus@ut.ee
