Integrating mental health care to reduce intimate partner violence in complex humanitarian emergencies

Abstract

The public health burden of intimate partner violence (IPV) is immense, particularly in complex humanitarian emergencies, where up to three in four women report experiencing lifetime IPV. Informed by feminist theory, current interventions addressing IPV in these settings often use gender-transformative approaches to advance more equitable gender attitudes, community mobilisation efforts to engage men in changing gender norms, and economic-focused programming to advance equitable financial decision making within couples. In this Viewpoint, we argue that feminist-grounded efforts to reduce IPV might benefit from incorporating interventions specifically targeted towards improving mental health. Taking settings affected by armed conflict as an example, we reflect on the utility of integrating mental health interventions into IPV programming and highlight three innovations and approaches to advance these efforts. Fundamentally, we aim to support researchers' and interventionists' incorporation of mental health care into gender-transformative programming in a robust manner, to reduce the burden of IPV in complex humanitarian emergencies.