Health Pathfinder: Toolkit and practice briefings

The Pathfinder project was a 3-year national pilot project, working across eight sites in England to transform Health’s response to domestic abuse. The project was led by Standing Together alongside expert partners AVA, Imkaan, IRISi and SafeLives. It brought together the expertise of specialist domestic abuse organisations through its consortium of experts to create an innovative, comprehensive and sustainable model responding to domestic abuse across the health economy.

Pathfinder Toolkit

The Pathfinder Toolkit has been designed as a stand-alone practical guide for commissioners and strategic professionals in the health sector, to support the delivery of a robust and coordinated response to domestic abuse. It complements existing literature about IRIS and Idva provision and brings together good practice responses to domestic abuse in the health system from across England. The Toolkit is aimed primarily at strategic level professionals with influence over local health strategies and commissioning decisions.

Pathfinder Profiles

Also available on this page are the GP, hospital and mental health Pathfinder Profiles, which are practice briefings developed for health professionals to provide practical advice and how to:

• ask about abuse
• respond to disclosures from patients
• refer and signpost victims of domestic abuse
• share best practice approaches of responding to domestic abuse

These profiles were created as part of the Pathfinder project. They aim to help establish a comprehensive health practice in relation to domestic abuse and wider issues relating to violence against women and girls (VAWG) in healthcare.