'If they see you bleeding they will quarantine you': Women's help-seeking for violence during the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks in Sierra Leone

There is increased awareness of the gendered impacts of outbreaks, including an exacerbation of violence against women and disruptions to essential health service delivery for women. However, there is limited understanding of women's own experiences of deciding to use the health system after ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rose Burns (Author), Neha Singh (Author), Maseray Fofanah (Author), Tehsie Momoh (Author), Shelley Lees (Author), Janet Seeley (Author), Manuela Colombini (Author)
Format: Book
Published: Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-12-01T00:00:00Z.
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042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Rose Burns  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Neha Singh  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Maseray Fofanah  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Tehsie Momoh  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Shelley Lees  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Janet Seeley  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Manuela Colombini  |e author 
245 0 0 |a 'If they see you bleeding they will quarantine you': Women's help-seeking for violence during the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks in Sierra Leone 
260 |b Taylor & Francis Group,   |c 2024-12-01T00:00:00Z. 
500 |a 10.1080/17441692.2024.2411572 
500 |a 1744-1706 
500 |a 1744-1692 
520 |a There is increased awareness of the gendered impacts of outbreaks, including an exacerbation of violence against women and disruptions to essential health service delivery for women. However, there is limited understanding of women's own experiences of deciding to use the health system after experiencing violence in settings affected by major emergent outbreaks like Ebola and COVID-19. Drawing on data from 37 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions conducted in Sierra Leone we described survivors' help-seeking pathways and interactions with the health system. Deciding to seek help and selecting a source of support was dependant on how 'unacceptable' the type of violence was, women's needs (be they for physical, psychological or social trauma) and the risk versus benefit anticipated in accessing support. Informal providers such as local mediators were often the first place that survivors sought help. Pre-existing challenges around access and poor-quality service provision were exacerbated by the outbreaks. Fear of infection, quarantine and widespread distrust of the Ebola response shaped women's help-seeking especially if symptoms like bleeding could resemble the virus. Our findings support the need to re-orientate towards survivor-defined interventions that are flexible in providing a wider range of support choices. 
546 |a EN 
690 |a Violence against women 
690 |a outbreaks 
690 |a COVID-19 
690 |a Ebola 
690 |a Sierra Leone 
690 |a SDG 5: Gender equality 
690 |a Public aspects of medicine 
690 |a RA1-1270 
655 7 |a article  |2 local 
786 0 |n Global Public Health, Vol 19, Iss 1 (2024) 
787 0 |n https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/17441692.2024.2411572 
787 0 |n https://doaj.org/toc/1744-1692 
787 0 |n https://doaj.org/toc/1744-1706 
856 4 1 |u https://doaj.org/article/5cec25c9cb404070a8a7cdaa59afa72f  |z Connect to this object online.